NEN Gallery

This plant is also a cultivated type of Spanish Bluebell (Rose Queen). This plant is not native but a type of bluebell introduced in gardens that is rapidly spreading. This plant was in a grass verge near a county road, not in a garden. The problem with the Spanish bluebell is than it hybridises with our own native bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) to produce a fertile cross (Hyacinthoides non-scripta x hispanica) which itself can cross back with our native bluebell. In many places now, the hybrids out number the native bluebell. Ecologists are very worried about the long-term future of our native plant. Spanish bluebells are much more erect than the native plant; hybrids are intermediate. Picture taken 9th May 2006 near Stagsden, Bedfordshire.