10 Neat Things about Creeping Bellflower
10 Neat Things about Creeping Bellflower
by Shauna Dobbie July 18, 2024
1. Kind of creepy
There are many kinds of campanula, most of them beautiful flowers that don’t bother anyone. Campanula rapunculoides, or creeping bellflower, gets people in quite a lather, though. It is invasive, and gardeners who have tried to rid their garden beds of it can have a nasty time. Just when you think you’re rid of them all, a new one will pop up. Why is that?
Creeping bellflower.
2. Monster cells.
The roots of creeping bellflower can grow as deep as 4 feet, which makes it hard to get the entire root when pulling them up. The problem is, you can pull up a few inches of the fine top roots, but they break off from the fleshier rhizomes that lie deeper and stay in the ground. These rhizomes are capable of storing nutrients and energy, and they contain meristematic cells — kind of like human stem cells — which are undifferentiated cells that have the potential to develop into various types of plant tissues. When a root is broken, the damage triggers the meristematic cells to become new tissues, like shoots that grow upwards toward the light, becoming a new plant.
Campanula rapunculoides seems easy to pull up, but the fleshy rhizomes are still in the ground.
3. Prolific seeder.
Each plant can produce thousands of seeds that are capable of germinating quickly under the right conditions. The seeds can be dispersed by wind, water, animals, and human activities, enabling the plant to colonize new areas quite efficiently. This dual mode of reproduction—through both roots and seeds—makes creeping bellflower a particularly challenging plant to manage and control in gardens and natural areas, as it can re-establish itself even after apparent removal.
Campanula rapunculoides.
4. Other campanulas.
You’ll recognize creeping bellflower by the way individual flowers hang along one side of a tall, slender stem. Other campanulas flower in bunches on a stem or at the end of a stem. Clustered bellflower (a little invasive), harebells (native to parts of Canada), peach-leafed bellflower, Canterbury bells and Piper’s bellflower are some of the many campanulas you can enjoy.
Campanula carpatica, not C. punculoides.
5. Where’s it from and how’d it get here?
Although campanula (the genus) are from all over the Northern Hemisphere, including a few from North America, Campanula rapunculoides specifically are from western Siberia and parts of Europe. They arrived like a great many invasives as ornamental plants and as food plants.
6. As food?
Yes, creeping bellflower is edible. The leaves are used raw or cooked, though the midribs are tough and don’t taste much like anything. The flowers are pretty and go beautifully on a salad. And the fleshy rhizomes, which are deep underground, are also edible. There is a heritage Korean recipe called doraji namul that features the rhizomes.
The fleshy rhizomes are lower than the finer roots and break off easily.
7. What else eats it?
It is remarkably unbothered by pests. Aphids, slugs and snails and some leaf miners will munch on it. Deer and rabbits may graze on the foliage, though it is generally not their first choice.
Basal leaves of creeping bellflower.
8. Pollinators?
Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and moths all appreciate creeping bellflower for its nectar. The bell-shaped flowers provide easy access for bees and the tall flower stalks are a good landing platform for butterflies.
9. So, what do I do?
Pull it. Regularly. You can dig up the plants, going way down to find the tap roots if you want. Or you can pull the plant as soon as you see it. You won’t get the tap roots by pulling, but eventually those underground storage facilities should have used up all their energy sending shoots upward. If the plant has no green exposed to the sun, it is not creating food for itself.
10. What about mowing?
If you mow frequently enough, you should be able to keep creeping bellflower under control. It won’t spread seeds because it won’t flower. It will continue to store energy in its roots, waiting for the day nobody mows, but if the choice is between doing nothing and mowing, by all means MOW.
Creeping bellflower.
