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Campanula rotundifolia; photograph (c) Joss Carr, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Joss Carr, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-19

Campanula rotundifolia L.

Harebell; Bluebell-of-Scotland; Bluebell; Bluebell bellflower

Campanulaceae · Denmark, Finland +46

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Campanula rotundifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCampanula rotundifolia, photograph (c) pankral, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Campanula rotundifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCampanula rotundifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCampanula rotundifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCampanula rotundifolia, photograph (c) Scott Shanks, some rights reserved (CC BY) 63 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-10.0°C
Record low -22.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
21°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
892mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
2–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Campanula rotundifolia, the harebell or common harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell in Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the north temperate regions of the Old World according to the Plants of the World Online database, or throughout the northern hemisphere in other interpretations (see Taxonomy, below). In Scotland, it is often known simply as bluebell. It is the floral emblem of Sweden where it is known as small bluebell. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Campanula rotundifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Campanula

Campanula is the type genus of the Campanulaceae family of flowering plants. Campanula are commonly known as bellflowers and take both their common and scientific names from the bell-shaped flowers—campanula is Latin for "little bell".

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Campanula", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (659 mm of 898 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 18.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Rain

898 mm in the median year at the habitat, 659 mm of it June to January. Wettest month August at 90 mm, driest month April at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 627 mm to 1,624 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 892 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 898 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 2 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 1, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -10.0 °C, the absolute minimum -22.2 °C, 3,404 frost nights in 44 years, 77.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -4.6 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range -10.0 °C to 0.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +58 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Campanula rotundifolia through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 21 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low -4.6 °C; 898 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost22.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-22.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 2–35RH 59–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 575 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -5–51 / -4–64 / 0–109 / 5–1315 / 10–1818 / 14–2021 / 16–2320 / 16–2215 / 12–1910 / 6–145 / 0–91 / -4–6
Night °C-4 / -11–1-5 / -10–1-2 / -7–32 / -2–56 / 2–910 / 7–1213 / 9–1413 / 9–149 / 5–115 / 1–80 / -5–4-3 / -10–1
Rain mm74 / 41–14357 / 33–11365 / 34–12251 / 35–9866 / 42–12378 / 63–12788 / 70–14390 / 68–15480 / 57–15988 / 59–17183 / 58–15578 / 51–148
DLI3 / 2–97 / 6–1415 / 13–2226 / 24–3134 / 32–3635 / 33–3733 / 31–3727 / 24–3117 / 15–239 / 7–164 / 2–102 / 1–7
RH %68 / 62–7166 / 61–6963 / 60–6560 / 59–6259 / 56–6260 / 57–6360 / 59–6361 / 60–6463 / 62–6566 / 63–6868 / 63–7169 / 63–72
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 575 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (679 records in those cells; 6 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 608:3716 (59.575, 5.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 575 distinct grid cells holding 679 of the 685 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 608:3716 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 59.50_5.625, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 217 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria · introduced: New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Argentina South, Falkland Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker59.85, 10.16 · in the densest population, 360 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 692 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 679 of them in the land cells it reads, of 685 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 530 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 692 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Campanula rotundifolia, photograph 1did not loadCampanula rotundifolia, photograph 2did not loadCampanula rotundifolia, photograph 3did not loadCampanula rotundifolia, photograph 4did not loadCampanula rotundifolia, photograph 5did not loadCampanula rotundifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) pankral, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Scott Shanks, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Eriophorum vaginatum Eriophorum vaginatum Tussock cottongrass Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerVaccinium vitis-idaea Vaccinium vitis-idaea Cowberry Photo: CC BY, Scott ShanksArnica montana Arnica montana Mountain arnica Photo: CC BY, Gunnar EnganSalix aurita Salix aurita Eared willow Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonScorzoneroides autumnalis Scorzoneroides autumnalis Autumn hawkbit Photo: CC BY, Николай СоболевElymus caninus Elymus caninus Bearded couch Photo: CC BY, Ondřej Křivan

Other Campanula 129 in the reference

Campanula ajugifolia Campanula ajugifolia Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Serdar ÖlezCampanula alaskana Campanula alaskana Alaskan bellflower Photo: CC BY, scottj800Campanula alata Campanula alata Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael Wolf (Webseite)Campanula alliariifolia Campanula alliariifolia Cornish bellflower Photo: CC0, author not statedCampanula alpestris Campanula alpestris Large-flowered Bellflower Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleCampanula alpina Campanula alpina Alpine Bellflower Photo: CC0, author not statedCampanula andrewsii Campanula andrewsii Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, BobCampanula armena Campanula armena Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, Andre HosperCampanula arvatica Campanula arvatica Orviedo Bellflower Photo: CC BY-SA, Jan VršovskýCampanula asperuloides Campanula asperuloides Bellflower Photo: CC BY-SA, Ghislain118 (AD)…Campanula autraniana Campanula autraniana Autran's Campanula Photo: CC BY, Илья РуденкоCampanula barbata Campanula barbata Bearded bellflower Photo: CC BY, Antoine Thivolle all 130 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Campanula allophylla; Campanula angustifolia; Campanula antirrhina; Campanula arcuata var. subrhomboidalis; Campanula asturica and 167 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Campanula heterophylla Gray is an older name of this species, not Campanula heterophylla, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Campanulaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +45
Wild records
692 in range · 530 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence search API; 16 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 59.50_5.625, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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