Bluebell Facts

Fairy lures and ancient cures

Apr 26, 2024

Bluebell season is officially here, and since I’m swotting up on bluebell facts ahead of my nature journaling walk in Beckenham Place Park in May, I thought I’d share some of my favourites facts about English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)…

Bluebell bulbs were once used to make glue, particularly used for bookbinding, which helped prevent silverfish damage to books. This sticky substance was also used to stiffen the ruffs that were popular in Elizabethan times and to make arrows (as in the kind used for archery).
Bluebells grow really slowly. It takes at least five years for a seed to develop into a bulb and colonies take a very long time to take hold, making the bluebell an indicator of ancient woodland. It can take years for bluebells to grow back if they are trampled (crushed leaves mean the plant can no longer photosynthesise and it will die back), so watch your step!
About half the world’s English bluebells can be found in the UK.
Bluebells have a long association with fairies. Some say that bluebells chime to summon fairies to midnight gatherings, but if a human were to hear this ringing they would die shortly after! It is also said that fairies use the flowers to enchant and trap humans and if you pick a bluebell the fairies will lead you astray, perhaps causing you to be lost forevermore. It's against the law to intentionally pick, uproot or destroy bluebells in the UK, so if the fairies haven’t put you off, perhaps a hefty fine will!
Despite their toxicity, bluebells have been used in medicine as a diuretic (to increase urination) and a styptic (to help stop bleeding) . Research on how bluebells could be used in treatment for cancer and HIV is ongoing.
English bluebells are also known as British bluebells, English harebells, wild hyacinth, cuckoo’s boots, granfer griggles, giggle sticks, witches’ thimbles, lady’s nightcap, fairy flowers, dog leek and cra’tae (crow’s toes).
Bluebells can reproduce sexually (by seed) or asexually (by producing new bulbs). Ants are known to be helpful in spreading bluebell seeds.
There’s a belief that wearing a wreath of bluebells will cause you to speak only the truth. Not sure what that’s about… but I wouldn’t risk picking one, let alone enough for a whole wreath after reading all that stuff about fairies!
English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are a lot more delicate-looking than Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) so it’s fairly easy to tell the difference once you know how, but we also have a lot of hybrids (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) in the UK which have been cross-pollinated by bees.
In the Victorian language of flowers the bluebell is a symbol of everlasting love, humility, gratitude and constancy.

Hopefully that’s encouraged you to go out on a bluebell hunt this weekend.

Thomas Winward

shared a lovely bluebell post this week too, which includes some links to help you find your local bluebell wood.

Sources and Further Reading

Nominate a Young Person to go to the Galápagos

It’s been a pleasure over the past few years to share the work of Dwayne Fields and Phoebe Smith in a number of publications I’ve worked on. This pair of adventurers were told they couldn’t and shouldn’t throughout their lives, but they didn’t listen, and they’ve since gone on to open doors for others. Dwayne and Phoebe believe that the next generation – from all walks of life – need to see and fall in love with the wonderful wilderness and wildlife of their local areas and understand the relationship between what we do here and how it affects the rest of the world (and vice versa) so that they will fight to protect it.

Dwayne and Phoebe set up the #WeTwo Foundation to inspire the next generation using the tool of adventure and last year they took a group of 10 underprivileged young people all the way to Antarctica! This week I was invited to watch a film documenting this inaugural adventure, and hearing some of the young people speak after the screening was incredibly inspiring, it’s clear how much the journey has changed their lives.

The #WeTwo Foundation are now looking for 10 young people to join them on their next adventure. If you know someone aged 16-19 who is driven, passionate and wants to make a difference, not just in their own lives but for the communities in which they live, you can nominate them to go to join Dwayne and Phoebe in the Galapágos. Find all the details and nominate a young person here.