In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

English bluebells are a big responsibility: the Brit Isles have most
of the world population, and they are vulnerable to hybridisation.

Well, yes and no. They are merely a subspecies, with only 11,000
years of difference from the Spanish.

Personally I would give serious consideration to lumping English and
Spanish (and Italian) bluebells into a single species (but I'd want to
read the recentish paper in Taxon), but the consensus classification
gives them species rank.

However, not all authorities agree, and I have considerable suspicion
that the species rank is as much political as scientific. I should
have at least clarified that my remark was my opinion and not the
consensus. As you know, I have a decreasing opinion of many of the
botanical taxonomists, especially English ones.

If the hysteria over their promiscuity isn't justified by the facts,
then I would change my mind. If it is, I would like to know why
they are claimed to be so clearly separate species, but equally
different variants of other plants aren't. Do you have a reference
to that paper, or at least a search key?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.