Rampion bellflower
Campanula rapunculus
Family · Campanulaceae · Irritating
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The tall slender bellflower of verges and wood edges, with a narrow spike of lilac-blue bells. The root is the vegetable that gives its name to the character in the Grimm tale.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Oak woods · Uplands
Also known asrampion, rapunzel
How to tell it
An upright slender stem to a metre, little branched. Basal leaves in a rosette, oval and stalked; stem leaves narrow and stalkless. Narrow bell flowers two to three centimetres, lilac-blue, facing up and gathered in a long narrow spike. The root is white, fleshy and tapered like a small turnip.
What it is confused with
Small bellflower
Campanula erinus
The small one is annual, a few centimetres tall, with millimetre flowers hidden among leaves; rampion reaches a metre and has a spike of clearly visible bells. Neither is dangerous.
What it is for
The root and young leaves were a common European vegetable until the nineteenth century, raw in salads or cooked, with a mild nutty taste. It fell out of use when more productive vegetables arrived. Traditional use, and pulling the root kills the plant, so it is not a gathering to do on a trail.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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