Campanula rotundifolia, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 92

141. C. rotundifolia L. , Sp. Pl. 163 (1753) .

Perennial. Rhizome slender, creeping, branched. Stems (5-)20-40(-70) cm, shortly ascending to erect (rarely procumbent or pendent), mostly pubescent below, sparsely leafy up to the inflorescence. Basal leaves suborbicular, reniform to shallowly cordate, crenate, sometimes present at anthesis; cauline narrowly lanceolate to linear, the lower petiolate, remotely serrate, the others sessile, entire. Inflorescence more or less branched, lax. Buds erect. Ovary smooth, rarely papillose. Calyx-teeth linear to narrowly triangular. Corolla (10-)12-20(-30) mm. Capsule (2—)3—5(—12) mm, turbinate to conical, pendent, membranous. 2/г = 34, 68, 102. Dry grassland, sand-dunes and rocky ground. Much ofEurope, but rare in the south. Au Be Br Bu Cz Da Fa Fe Ga Ge Hb He Ho?Hs Hu Is It Ju No Po Rm Rs (N, B, C, W, E) Su.

Extremely variable; in addition to an array of infraspecific taxa, numerous variants have been described as distinct species. However, a great deal of the variation is continuous and there is little correlation between the different characters.

Polyploids differ from the diploids in having larger corolla, capsule, seeds, stomata and pollen grains, but there is considerable intergradation and there does not seem to be any definite geographical pattern, so a clear-cut separation is not possible. The European mountain plants ( subsp. polymorpha (Witasek) Tacik , subsp. sudetica (Hruby) Soó and var. alpicola Hayek) are tetraploid and have the following features in common: stems (5-)10-15cm; flowers solitary or few; calyx-teeth narrowly triangular; corolla 16-25(-30) mm; capsule 5-9(-12) mm. Dwarf northern tetraploids, very similar morphologically, are known as C. groenlandica Berlin, Öfvers. Kongl. Vet.-Akad. Förhandl. 41(7): 50 (1884).

Variants with a papillose ovary require further study; they are absent in the north but become gradually more common southwards, and at least some of them may in fact be referable to the group of saxicolous species 105-126, or may have arisen from introgressive hybridization. Many of the records of C. rotundifolia in south Europe are doubtful, and the limits of distribution in the Balkan peninsula and in S. France are not known with any accuracy. Plants from N. Spain have been separated as C. asturica Podi. , Mitt. Bot. Staatssamm. (München) 8: 213 (1970), and C. wiedmannii Podi. , loc. cit. (1970).