Campanula rotundifolia

Native

Common

Dry to moderate moisture. Woods, meadows, cliffs, and beaches. Full or partial sun.

June to October

Blue

4″ to 20″

This is a 4″ to 20″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises from shallow roots and a slender rhizome.

The stems are slender and erect to ascending. They do not recline on adjacent plants. They are unbranched except just below the inflorescence. They may be hairless or have inconspicuous longitudinal lines of hairs. When broken, the stem exudes a milky sap.

Basal leaves are, broadly egg-shaped to nearly circular, 3 ⁄16″ to ⅜″ long, and 3 ⁄16″ to 5 ⁄16″ wide. They are on slender, ¾″ to 1¼″ long leaf stalks. They are shallowly heart-shaped, rounded, or broadly angled at the base and rounded or angled to a sharp point at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. The margins are untoothed or have a few blunt teeth. Basal leaves are often absent at flowering time. The species name, rotundifolia, refers to the shape of the basal leaves.

Stem leaves are alternate and ascending or spreading. Lower stem leaves are long-stalked, narrowly elliptic to narrowly inversely egg-shaped, and 1¼″ to 2⅜″ long. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. The margins are untoothed. The leaves become progressively smaller, narrower, and shorter stalked as they ascend the stem. Upper stem leaves are stalkless and narrowly lance-shaped to linear.

The inflorescence is a nodding, usually unbranched cluster (raceme) of 3 to 8 flowers at the end of the stem.

The flowers are bell-shaped and ¾″ to 1¼″ long. There are 5 green sepals (calyx), fused at their base into a 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ long tube, then separated into 5 linear, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long lobes. The calyx lobes are widely spreading at maturity. There are 5 light blue to blue petals (corolla), fused at their base for about half of their length into a ¼″ to ⅜″ long tube, then separated into 5 lance-shaped, ⅛″ long lobes. The lobes of the corolla are much shorter than the tube and are flared outward. The calyx and corolla are each radially symmetrical so that if bisected vertically on any plane each half would be identical. There are 5 stamens that do not protrude from the corolla tube. There is a single violet style that ends in a stigma with 3 lobes. The style protrudes from the corolla tube but is not as long as the petals.

The fruit is a nearly spherical, 3-chambered capsule containing many seeds. The capsule is ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long, 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ in diameter.