Sheepbit

The picture here below dates from two weeks ago. Hot wetter last week brought flowering season for Sheepbit (Jasione montana) to an end, the little blue balls have faded away and now the plant is difficult to find. Especially when it hides in high grass and brambles.









The little round flowerheads are composed of several dozen very little bell-shaped flowers. Yes, Sheepbit is a member of the Campanulaceae family, it has also the typical blue colour of this family.

It grows in neglected grasslands and field and wood edges on sandy neutral or acidic soil, often in light shadow, and it is not that common in Perigord.

To carry so many flowers you need a lot of stalks, apparently.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower

A big, rather untidy plant grows in the brambles and bushes on the side of a path. It has a lot of blue flowers.

Nettle-leaved bellflower (Campanula trachelium) produces all summer, and even after it, blue or lilac bell-shaped flowers on long sturdy stalks. It does not like full sunshine so you will find it mostly in the shadow of trees, sometimes together with the Clustered bellflower that now already has stopped flowering.

The flowers are hairy, even inside!

The triangular leaves (yes, like nettle leaves) are also hairy. Here those of a small plant just before it started flowering.