Bluebells are my favourite flower and I often go off bluebell hunting in spring. I usually find the Spanish bluebell growing around roadside verges and front gardens, where our British bluebell can be found carpeting forests and woodlands. There is nothing on earth as beautiful as a forest carpeted with bluebells. It truly is heaven on earth and a magical sight to behold. Long live the British bluebell ❤️
Thanks Lewis. We were on a walk today and kept asking this exact question, so perfect timing! Only saw the Spanish bluebells once, in someone’s front garden. All the woodlands were covered in native. They’re both beautiful.
I've viewed plenty of videos (Irish & Uk), but you are the first foraging etc video maker to wake me up to all this, great precision, detail and camera & voice presentation. My heart is very grateful and thankful to fab folks like you. Best wishes from Éire. This world (incl. me), is sadly lacking in this real education. While I can still own me own home, you are welcome to stay FOC at my house (Munster) for a holiday anytime.
@@UKWILDCRAFTS Glad to hear. I would be happy to meet up with ya if you decide to head in my direction (Munster). Me and cousin went cycling from Kilkee to Loop head on a part forage trip in late May. Thanks to your very inspiring vids I managed to identify and collect some plants along the way. All good. Happy to share my contact details with you. Best wishes
My old back garden was absolutely full of the Spanish Bluebells. It took years to get rid of 90% of the bulbs, it was almost impossible to get rid of them all, the bulbs could be almost invisible to the naked eye. *Needed to clear them for vegetable beds.
It may be controversial but whenever I stumble across Spanish Bluebells or hybrids in the wild I stamp out their flowers to prevent cross pollination with native ones. I think it is about time Councils in the UK treat the Spanish Bluebell with the dame scrutiny as other invasive plants and remove them
I'm going to have a good ol Spanish bluebell stamping session this weekend. I've seen hybrids that look exactly like natives except flowers all around the stem (not nodding)
just want to let you know, I truly appreciate the powerful zoom to whatever camera you are using, it makes foraging interesting and feels like we are in the woods with you. Thank you for all that you do. I personally love foraging but didn't see any video as beautiful as yours on this corner of the galaxy of YT... hahaha. I am an Alkaline vegan; my lifestyle is more for wild and natural foods and seeded fruits, and I am blessed to find your channel, keep up the good job I am learning fast on native plants and herbs as well as mushrooms, etc .love from Ireland Thank you.
Very welldone video. I saw some Spanish Bluebells in Boston which I thought were nice looking (more of a hybrid) but the native Bluebells are beautiful
Very informative video making people aware of our native and far more glorious blue bell unfortunately I think that your right and the Spanish will eventually take over leaving us with just hybrids which is really sad
Lovely simply informative video, thank you. In my front garden I've had some natives spring up, there's some white ones two. In between the blue and the white, there's some pink! My guess is that the pink are a hybridisation between the two (since bluebells are actually more of a purple than a blue, at least to my eye! My partner is convinced I'm colour blind but I think it's him. Lol)
I class them as 'albino'. They look identical all the way down to the bulb in the ground here in Surrey. But... as a child of the '70's spending all my free time in the woods building camps and 'adventuring'... never saw one whitey in whole woodlands for miles around.
Make sure they r not 3 cornered leeks! They r super invasive and my garden is infested! I thought they were white blue bells for a few years, now I know better. U can easily tell by breaking a stem and seeing if it smells onion or garlic like. If so, dig them up and remove all bulbs, and be super diligent each year to remove them! On the plus side, u can eat the bulb, stem and flower, and r pretty tasty!
Both are indeed beautiful BUT the problem is in todays world anything "Native" will succumb to the more Invasive species and become obsolete! the same thing is happening with the Native red Squirrel V the Grey Squirrel. It's not the squirrel, Bluebell etc fault! It's just the way things are in a world where trade means non-native species are all but impossible to stop!
No, they are quite toxic... However you can make a pre historic glue from the bulbs which is believed to have been used to attach the fletchings to Arrows
Always wonderful to see your videos :) I do wonder about the last few years where countries are constantly talking about "Invasive" plants and animals...hmmm as all plants we have known have been shared and grown between countries for healing and food purposes. And the plant's that are naturally abundant because they are our natural food source now deemed "Weeds" and to be removed....hmmm. Go to the grocery store and buy our non-nutrient gmo pesticided crap.
The latest reseach by Markus Ruhsam et al. has looked at the DNA of bluebell species to help identification. Only 2% of the 56 samples of native Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) show any evidence of introgression by non-native Bluebell DNA. They also supoorted what many field botanists have been saying for a while now, that non-native blubells in UK are the hybrid (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) and not the Spanish Bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica). In short, the Spanish bluebells you show in your video are hybrids and there isn't any evidence that they are threatening the existence of our native Bluebell population.
That doesn't mean we should not eradicate this menace. I have them in my garden and they pop up everywhere. I have been trying to remove them for five years now but they still return. I have to unearth my borders, bag up soil for the tip, uproot plants, etc. My neighbour doesn't give a fig and has entire sections of his garden chock-a-block with the damn things. He would need to remove many tonnes of soil to even begin to remove them, and as he never puts his vape down, that aint gunna happen! I will forever have to spend time and effort keeping them at bay, but when I get too old I will have to let them take over my garden. Not exactly the future I was hoping for!
Bluebells are my favourite flower and I often go off bluebell hunting in spring. I usually find the Spanish bluebell growing around roadside verges and front gardens, where our British bluebell can be found carpeting forests and woodlands. There is nothing on earth as beautiful as a forest carpeted with bluebells. It truly is heaven on earth and a magical sight to behold. Long live the British bluebell ❤️
Thanks Lewis. We were on a walk today and kept asking this exact question, so perfect timing! Only saw the Spanish bluebells once, in someone’s front garden. All the woodlands were covered in native. They’re both beautiful.
I've viewed plenty of videos (Irish & Uk), but you are the first foraging etc video maker to wake me up to all this, great precision, detail and camera & voice presentation. My heart is very grateful and thankful to fab folks like you. Best wishes from Éire. This world (incl. me), is sadly lacking in this real education. While I can still own me own home, you are welcome to stay FOC at my house (Munster) for a holiday anytime.
Thanks Thomas that’s very kind. I do plan on taking a trip around Ireland, possibly next year 😊
@@UKWILDCRAFTS Glad to hear. I would be happy to meet up with ya if you decide to head in my direction (Munster). Me and cousin went cycling from Kilkee to Loop head on a part forage trip in late May. Thanks to your very inspiring vids I managed to identify and collect some plants along the way. All good. Happy to share my contact details with you. Best wishes
Thank you for this video! I often find invasive bluebells around me when foraging but I personally think they both look beautiful anyway! :)
Same!
My old back garden was absolutely full of the Spanish Bluebells. It took years to get rid of 90% of the bulbs, it was almost impossible to get rid of them all, the bulbs could be almost invisible to the naked eye. *Needed to clear them for vegetable beds.
It may be controversial but whenever I stumble across Spanish Bluebells or hybrids in the wild I stamp out their flowers to prevent cross pollination with native ones. I think it is about time Councils in the UK treat the Spanish Bluebell with the dame scrutiny as other invasive plants and remove them
I'm with you on this one. Stamp away.
Brexit means Brexit!!!
@@stefheartsyou haha
@@stefheartsyou You're stupid for trying to bring up some kind of xenophobic angle. Learn something about botany before you starve to death yeah.
I'm going to have a good ol Spanish bluebell stamping session this weekend. I've seen hybrids that look exactly like natives except flowers all around the stem (not nodding)
just want to let you know, I truly appreciate the powerful zoom to whatever camera you are using, it makes foraging interesting and feels like we are in the woods with you. Thank you for all that you do. I personally love foraging but didn't see any video as beautiful as yours on this corner of the galaxy of YT... hahaha. I am an Alkaline vegan; my lifestyle is more for wild and natural foods and seeded fruits, and I am blessed to find your channel, keep up the good job I am learning fast on native plants and herbs as well as mushrooms, etc .love from Ireland Thank you.
Brilliantly presented knowledge in an easy to understand format. Thank you👍
Very useful video! Now I know what I have in my garden. Thanks
Very welldone video. I saw some Spanish Bluebells in Boston which I thought were nice looking (more of a hybrid) but the native Bluebells are beautiful
and I think both are beautiful
An excellent comparison. Thank you.
By coincidence i googled that question on sunday in the woods. Pleased the ones in my garden are the British variety
Very informative video making people aware of our native and far more glorious blue bell unfortunately I think that your right and the Spanish will eventually take over leaving us with just hybrids which is really sad
Good clear ID info
Lovely simply informative video, thank you. In my front garden I've had some natives spring up, there's some white ones two. In between the blue and the white, there's some pink!
My guess is that the pink are a hybridisation between the two (since bluebells are actually more of a purple than a blue, at least to my eye! My partner is convinced I'm colour blind but I think it's him. Lol)
Brilliant description and differentiation. Thankyou
Thanks 😁
We have some white bluebells, at least they look like blubells, any idea what they might be ?
I class them as 'albino'. They look identical all the way down to the bulb in the ground here in Surrey.
But... as a child of the '70's spending all my free time in the woods building camps and 'adventuring'... never saw one whitey in whole woodlands for miles around.
i,ve seen white and pink bells mainly in gardens tho , i think they are just variants of native bluebells or spanish.
Make sure they r not 3 cornered leeks! They r super invasive and my garden is infested! I thought they were white blue bells for a few years, now I know better. U can easily tell by breaking a stem and seeing if it smells onion or garlic like. If so, dig them up and remove all bulbs, and be super diligent each year to remove them! On the plus side, u can eat the bulb, stem and flower, and r pretty tasty!
snowbells?
Can we grow blue bells in Texas
Both are indeed beautiful BUT the problem is in todays world anything "Native" will succumb to the more Invasive species and become obsolete! the same thing is happening with the Native red Squirrel V the Grey Squirrel. It's not the squirrel, Bluebell etc fault!
It's just the way things are in a world where trade means non-native species are all but impossible to stop!
👍
Can you make tea out of them???
No, they are quite toxic... However you can make a pre historic glue from the bulbs which is believed to have been used to attach the fletchings to Arrows
Always wonderful to see your videos :) I do wonder about the last few years where countries are constantly talking about "Invasive" plants and animals...hmmm as all plants we have known have been shared and grown between countries for healing and food purposes. And the plant's that are naturally abundant because they are our natural food source now deemed "Weeds" and to be removed....hmmm. Go to the grocery store and buy our non-nutrient gmo pesticided crap.
The latest reseach by Markus Ruhsam et al. has looked at the DNA of bluebell species to help identification. Only 2% of the 56 samples of native Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) show any evidence of introgression by non-native Bluebell DNA. They also supoorted what many field botanists have been saying for a while now, that non-native blubells in UK are the hybrid (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) and not the Spanish Bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica). In short, the Spanish bluebells you show in your video are hybrids and there isn't any evidence that they are threatening the existence of our native Bluebell population.
That doesn't mean we should not eradicate this menace. I have them in my garden and they pop up everywhere. I have been trying to remove them for five years now but they still return. I have to unearth my borders, bag up soil for the tip, uproot plants, etc. My neighbour doesn't give a fig and has entire sections of his garden chock-a-block with the damn things. He would need to remove many tonnes of soil to even begin to remove them, and as he never puts his vape down, that aint gunna happen! I will forever have to spend time and effort keeping them at bay, but when I get too old I will have to let them take over my garden. Not exactly the future I was hoping for!