Photographed
October 2.Photographed
October 2.A European garden flower escaped from cultivation, often in yards of older homes where it had originally been planted. It is easily identified by its stalks of large dangling blue-violet bells, all arranged on one side of the stem. This plant grew at the edge of a sidewalk in Beechview in the shadow of a tall hedge.
Although Gray says it blooms in July and August, this plant was part of a colony happily blooming in early October.
From Gray’s Manual:
CAMPÁNULA [Tourn.] L. BELLFLOWER. Calyx 5-cleft . Corolla generally bell-shaped, 5-lobed. Stamens 5, separate; the filaments broad and membranaceous at the base. Stigmas and cells of the capsule 3 in our species, the short pod opening on the sides by as many valves or holes. —Herbs, with terminal or axillary flowers. (A diminutive of the Italian campana, a bell, from the shape of the corolla.)
C. rapunculoìdes L. Stems slender, 6-10 dm. high, smoothish, or finely pubescent above; lower leaves long-petioled, cordate-ovate; the upper ovate-lanceolate, short-petioled to sessile, irregularly serrate-dentate, hispidulous beneath; flowers nodding, single in the axils of bracts, forming racemes; calyx and capsule scabrous-puberulent; corolla campanulate, 2-3 cm. long; capsule opening by pores at base. —Roadsides, thickets, etc., e. Que. to Ont., 0., and s. N. Y. July, Aug. (Introd. from Eurasia.) Var. ucranica (Bess.) C. Koch. Smoother; the calyx and capsule essentially glabrous. Similar situations, Que. and N. E. (Introd. from Russia.)