Common Name

Tall Bluebell

Family

Campanulaceae

Notes

Perennial forb to 90cm tall. Only the lowermost leaves opposite each other (rarely whorled), the rest alternating up the stems. Leaves 0.5-7cm long, 1-6mm wide, flat, usually hairy, margins wavy, entire or with small teeth. Flowers usually blue inside, sometimes white outside, bell-shaped, with 5 lobes, in open groups at the tops of the stems.

Differs from Wahlenbergia communis in that the sepals are 3-16mm long and the seed cases are oval to globular, from Wahlenbergia gracilis, Wahlenbergia queenslandica , and Wahlenbergia tumidifructa in that the lower leaves are opposite each other, from Wahlenbergia fluminalis, Wahlenbergia graniticola , Wahlenbergia littoricola, and Wahlenbergia luteola in that the free lobes of the flower are less than twice as long as the tube, and from Wahlenbergia gracilenta in that the free lobes of the flower are 6-20mm long.

Description and photo (as Wahlenbergia stricta) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 627

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Wahlenbergia~stricta

Line drawings of flowers and fruiting bodies of seven species of Wahlenbergia in this key (but not Wahlenbergia graniticola, Wahlenbergia luteola, or Wahlenbergia stricta ssp. alterna)in Flora of South Australia 4th edition, Handbooks Committee on behalf of the South Australian Government (1986), Volume 3, page 1382