Azores bellflower
Azorina vidalii
Family · Campanulaceae · Harmless
The bellflower that turned into a shrub, and only in the Azores: a woody stem with leaf rosettes at the top and white or pale pink bells hanging, clinging to sea-beaten cliffs.
Dunes and sand · Walls and rocks
Also known asVidal's bellflower
How to tell it
A subshrub with a thick woody stem to a metre, with a rosette of narrow fleshy leaves at each tip and scars of fallen leaves along the stem. Hanging bell flowers three to four centimetres, white, cream or pale pink with darker veins. It grows only on coastal cliffs. Range: endemic to the Azores.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
None. It is one of the botanical symbols of the Azores and is protected: natural populations have shrunk badly because of goats, invasive species and collecting for gardens. You see it from the trail and do not dig it up.
The law says
Protected under the Habitats Directive and by Azorean regional law. Do not pick or transplant it.