Bluebell

Botanical Name: Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Previously known as Scilla nutans, Scilla nonscriptus, Agraphis nutans, Endymion nonscriptus)

Family: Liliaceae

Other Names: Adder's flowers, auld man's bell, bats in the belfry, blue granfer, blue grammar, blue squill, chimney bellflowers, Canterbury bells, claverkeys, Coventry bells, crawfeet, craw toes, crawtraes, cuckoo's boots, culverkeys, English rampion, goosie gander, granfer gribbles, grammar gribbles, harebell, jacinth, locks and keys, mariets, mercury's violets, nodding squill, our lady's nightcap, our lady's thimbles, pentecostal bells, ring-o-bells, sapphire queen, snap grass, throatwort, wild hyacinth, Venus's looking glass, viola Mariana, wild Williams, witches thimbles, wood bells, wood hyacinth Habitat: Deciduous woods

Description: Small white bulb that exudes thick mucus when crushed. Height around 30cm/1ft. Blue bell shaped flowered -six petals and six yellow antlers

Native to: Britain (22-33% of the world population)

Harvesting: Flowers: April -May

Other Notes: Bees, hoverflies and butterflies feed on its nectar

The Bluebell was once the national emblem of England and they were said to flower on 23rd April St Georges Day and its flower was a blue as the oceans that Britannia ruled

If a bluebell rings it is said to indicate a fairy is present Bluebell fields can lead people to be enchanted into the fairy realm, unable to return

Picking bluebells is said to anger the fairies

Bluebells in oak corpses indicate "Oakmen" are presents -mortals should avoid the area

Its former name nutans means nodding Agraphis & non-scripta means unmarked or not written on

In Greek myth, the hyacinth was said to have markings on it similar to the Greek "AI AI" which means "Alas!" Apollo to commemorate the death of Hyacinthos, the catamite of Zeus, Zephyr, & Apollo wrote these markings there. The name "non-scriptus" distinguishes that the bluebell despite being a member of the hyacinth family did not have Apollo's writing on them.

Claverkeys and Cluverkeys means dove's key or possible the musical note of a dove

They were called adder's flowers, as it was believed their bulbs could cure snakebite

Traditionally the bulbs were used to stiffen the collars of Elizabethans, as the glue for fletching arrows, and as a bookbinder's glue.

It is believed that wearing a wreath of bluebells compels people to tell the truth

If you can turn a flower inside out without tearing it you will win the heart of the person you love.

It is associated with love and the goddess Aphrodite and the Virgin Mary.

It may also be associated with a sea goddess of the Etruscans named Scilla who the Greeks vilified as the sea monster Scylla who preyed on sailors. The Etruscans pictured Scilla with wings and a serpent's tail.

Endymion is the mycological Greek youth with whom the moon goddess Selene fell in love with. He was a shepherd and she fell in love with him as she watched him. She or Zeus made him sleep forever so she could kiss him where he lay.

Caution: Poisonous in natural state