Campanula thyrsoides (yellow bellflower)

Native to the European Alps, Balkan Mountains and Dinaric Alps (where it occurs in France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria). It has been found at 1,010-2,900 m (most commonly at 1,600-2,200 m) above sea level.

Campanula thyrsoides at Kew Gardens (Image: Richard Wilford)

A hapaxanthic (flowering only once before dying) perennial with a thick, fleshy taproot, usually 20-40 cm long but up to 1 m. All parts of the plant contain sticky, milky latex. The narrow, stiffly hairy leaves form a rosette at ground level. The leaves that develop during the summer are shorter than those that develop during the spring. The unbranched flowering stem bears numerous narrow leaves and is 10-100 cm tall, with a covering of bristly hairs. Each flowering stem bears 50-200 tubular, upright, bell-shaped, pale-yellow flowers, 15-25 mm long, which are crowded near the top of the stem. The flowers are insect-pollinated; bumblebees are the main pollinators.

Hand-coloured engraving by Sydenham Edwards  of Campanula thyrsoides (c) Curtis's Botanical Magazine.

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

Now well over two hundred years old, the Magazine is the longest running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. Each four-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described.

Published for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by Blackwell Publishing.
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Although considered rare throughout its native range, yellow bellflower is locally abundant. It is protected in Germany, and regionally in some parts of Austria and Switzerland. Campanula thyrsoides is listed in national Red Lists (according to IUCN criteria) as follows: Austria - ‘Near Threatened’; Bulgaria - ‘Endangered’; Croatia - ‘Strictly Protected’; France - ‘Least Concern’; Germany - ‘Vulnerable’; Switzerland - ‘Least Concern’ (but regionally ‘Vulnerable’ or ‘Near Threatened’).

Yellow bellflower is occasionally grown as an unusual ornamental for the alpine house or rock garden. It has no known medicinal uses.

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership aims to save plant life world wide, focusing on plants under threat and those of most use in the future. Seeds are dried, packaged and stored at a sub-zero temperature in our seed bank vault.

Description of seeds: Seeds are flattened.
Number of seed collections stored in the Millennium Seed Bank: One.
Seed storage behaviour: 100 % germination was achieved on a 1% agar medium, at a temperature of 16°C, and a cycle of 12 hours daylight/12 hours darkness.

Because yellow bellflower is cultivated as a biennial, it is important that the seeds are collected and sown every second year. The plants thrive in well-drained soil in full sun, with some feeding in the first year of growth to build up a strong plant for flowering.

Yellow bellflower can be seen most years in the Davies Alpine House or Rock Garden at Kew.

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)