This wild flower’s deep blue flower spikes may be found carpeting damp glades and meadows.

An evergreen perennial, it spreads by means of long, leafy runners. Spikes of purplish-blue flowers grow to from dense mats of dark green leaves with purple highlights. It is sometimes confused with Selfheal, however on this plant the flowers are arranged more tightly at the top of the stem.

Where to find Bugle

In damp woods, hedge banks and meadows throughout the UK.

How’s it doing?

Bugle continues to be common in its preferred habitats.

Its bell-like flowers with up-rolled tips carpet forest floors in the spring and its distinctive scent attracts bees beneath the trees.

The UK is home to about half of the world’s bluebell population. Perhaps its no surprise, then, that they are so popular here: when Plantlife asked the British public to vote for the “Nation’s Favourite Wildflower” it won by a significant margin both in England and the UK as a whole (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland opted for the Primrose (Primula vulgaris) instead.

Where to find Bluebell

Generally found in shady habitats, but also in more open ones in the damper west. It is associated with woodlands, also grows in hedgerows and grassland. Bluebells are woodland plants but, except perhaps in East Anglia, they do not need woods as much as humidity and continuity of habitat.

How’s it doing?

Although still common in Britain, bluebells are threatened locally by habitat destruction, collection from the wild, and from the escape of the Spanish bluebell from gardens and subsequent cross-breeding and loss of true native populations. The latter is a particular concern – during a survey around one in six bluebells found in broad-leaved woodland was a Spanish rather than native bluebell.

Bluebells are now protected from illegal commercial harvesting.