Species
+

Hyacinthoides non-scripta (L.) Chouard ex Rothm.

Bluebell, Common or English Bluebell, English bluebell, English bluebell

Climate known 45 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Hyacinthoides non-scripta is a bulbous perennial plant found in Atlantic areas from the north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell, English bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell, Campanula rotundifolia. In spring, H. non-scripta produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hyacinthoides non-scripta”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hyacinthoides

Hyacinthoides is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, known as bluebells.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hyacinthoides”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(L.) Chouard ex Rothm.
Native to
Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium +4
Wild records
825 in range· 341 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Jul, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
816mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 88 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January, March and May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 816 mm a year, wettest October at 88 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Agraphis cernua (L.) Rchb.; Agraphis cernua var. alba Boissin; Agraphis nutans (Sm.) Link; Endymion cernuus (L.) Dumort.; Endymion lacaillei Corb. and 30 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January, March and May in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (585 mm of 816 mm) takes 8 months, August to January, March and May. Mean temperature moves 12.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to July, September and November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 816 mm a year, wettest October at 88 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

816 mm a year at the habitat, 585 mm of it August to January, March and May. Wettest month October at 88 mm, driest April at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 665 mm to 1216 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.3 °C, the absolute minimum -11.2 °C, about 44 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.7 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.8 °C to 4.2 °C), warmest day 20.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Feb to 13 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 816 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 616 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -11.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost28.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-11.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–34RH 62–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 616 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 6–97 / 6–910 / 9–1112 / 11–1415 / 14–1818 / 16–2120 / 18–2320 / 18–2318 / 16–2014 / 13–1610 / 9–127 / 6–9
Night °C2 / 1–52 / 1–43 / 2–55 / 4–78 / 7–1011 / 10–1213 / 12–1513 / 12–1511 / 10–138 / 7–115 / 4–82 / 2–5
Rain mm76 / 56–12957 / 43–9662 / 48–9956 / 48–8265 / 51–8459 / 47–7959 / 47–8162 / 48–8967 / 54–9688 / 67–13882 / 60–13483 / 60–140
DLI5 / 4–710 / 9–1217 / 16–2027 / 25–3033 / 31–3634 / 32–3833 / 31–3728 / 25–3220 / 18–2412 / 10–147 / 5–84 / 3–6
RH %68 / 66–7065 / 64–6764 / 62–6562 / 60–6462 / 60–6462 / 60–6462 / 59–6562 / 60–6563 / 62–6565 / 64–6767 / 65–6969 / 66–71

Each figure is the median across the 616 grid cells holding the 818 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 771:3556 (51.425, -2.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 616 distinct grid cells holding the 818 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 771:3556 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.50_-1.875, lapse-corrected -32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 91 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreat Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Portugal, Spain· introduced: Austria, Germany, Italy, Romania, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, British Columbia, Washington, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Falkland Is.
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.377, -0.379 · in the densest population, 325 records (39% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 825 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 341 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 825 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scriptaHyacinthoides non-scripta

Photographs: (c) Sean Crocker, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Jonathan Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kieran Roy Powell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Hyacinthoides non-scripta, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Sambucus nigraL.
M. D. Atkinson, Elaine Atkinson (2002) · Journal of Ecology
Hedera helix L.
Daniel J. Metcalfe (2005) · Journal of Ecology
Polyhydroxylated pyrrolidine and pyrrolizidine alkaloids from Hyacinthoides non-scripta and Scilla campanulata
Atsushi Kato, Isao Adachi, Miwa Miyauchi, Kyoko Ikeda (1999) · Carbohydrate Research
Glycosidase-inhibiting pyrrolidine alkaloids from Hyacinthoides non-scripta
Alison A. Watson, Robert J. Nash, Mark R. Wormald, David J. Harvey (1997) · Phytochemistry
Application of metabolomics and molecular networking in investigating the chemical profile and antitrypanosomal activity of British bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Dotsha Jaleel Raheem, Ahmed Tawfike, Usama Ramadan Abdelmohsen, RuAngelie Edrada‐Ebel (2019) · Scientific Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Hyacinthoides 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.