BLUEBELLS FAIRY FLOWERS: SUPERSTITIONS, USES AND BENEFITS OF BLUEBELLS.


BLUEBELLS, HYACINTHOIDES NONSCRIPTA
Bluebells are native to the British Isles and Ireland, although there seems to be a little confusion surrounding them. The “bluebell of Scotland” is the harebell, Campinula rotundifolia which is a completely different flower. This is usually a single flower on a stalk, but bluebells have many bell shaped flowers on a single stalk, and the native British bluebell has a heady fragrance. The invading species of Spanish bluebell is Hyacinthoides hispanica, which is easy to distinguish from the British variety as it doesn’t have a fragrance, has paler blue flowers, is taller, is more upright and has wider leaves. The British variety is now a protected species, under the 1998 Wildlife and Countryside Act so unfortunately it is illegal to collect them. However they were abundant in the woods where I grew up and there were no restrictions on picking them, although no one I knew ever uprooted them. This may have been because of an ancient superstition, which says that anyone who picks or damages a bluebell will die because they are fairy flowers. It was thought that the fairies rang the bluebells to call a fairy meeting and any human who heard the bells ringing would die, or fall under the enchantment of the fairies. In some parts of the country it was believed that you shouldn’t walk into a ring of bluebells because you would fall under a spell or die. They are sometimes called Dead Man’s Bells. When I was young I had no idea that they were a flower of doom, but knew them as fairy flowers, which was not something to fear.
    Another superstition is that if someone wears a garland of bluebells they are compelled to tell the truth. Also if you are a young woman and can turn a single bluebell flower inside out without tearing or damaging it, you will win the one you love.
   The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain keeps a close watch on bluebells and got very excited in 2009 and again in may 2010 when white bluebells were found. I have often seen them growing along with pink ones and knew they were rare, although I hadn’t realized (because there were always a fair number of them) that a white bluebell occurs once in every 10,000. We had pink ones in the woods too and these are even rarer, I have since learned. In 2008 it reported that the bluebells had flowered a month early on the 3rd of March, possibly because of global warming.
  Bluebells along with wild wood anemones, foxgloves, primroses, sorrel and dog violets indicate places where ancient forests (pre1600) once stood. If you have these in your garden, then it is likely that your house in built on ancient forest land.
   These flowers attract bees and butterflies, and the 19th century poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, waxed poetically lyrical about them. Here are some of his lines:
     “In the month when earth and sky are one,
      To squeeze the bluebell ‘gainst the adder’s bite”
And “The heaven’s upbreaking through the earth” was how he described the bluebell in flower, which it does normally around April and May. Juice from the bluebell stems was an old remedy for poisonous bites; the adder mentioned by Tennyson is the viper, the only poisonous snake native to the British Isles.
   Britain actually has 30% of the world’s population of bluebells, which grow in North America, North Africa, Western Europe, the Iberian Peninsula and Central France. They can also be found along the Mediterranean as far as Italy.
   The plant was first called Hyacinthus by the botanist Linnaeus, because of their resemblance to the wild hyacinth which meant that he associated it with the Greek myth of the youth Hyacinth who was beloved of Apollo the Sun god and Zephyrus the god of the West Wind. Hyacinth loved Apollo best and the jealous West Wind sent a quoit in the wrong direction while Hyacinth was playing quoits with Apollo, and he was killed by its blow. In his grief, Apollo caused a hyacinth flower to grow from the blood of Hyacinth and the letters Ai Ai (alas, alas) were written on it. The bluebell was called Hyacinth nonscripta because it was not written upon.
   In the language of flowers the bluebell means constancy, humility and gratitude and is a symbol of humility and gratitude.
  Traditionally the bluebell root was used as a styptic (which stops bleeding by contracting the bleed vessels and tissue) and diuretic, and also as a substitute for starch when huge white ruffs were fashionable (Elizabethan and Jacobean times). The bulb contains inulin and mucilage and trials are underway to teat the efficacy of the bluebell for the treatments of infections stemming from HIV and cancer treatments, but the trials are still in the early stages.

4 comments:

  1. i heard when i was younger that it is bad luck to take bluebells into the house, is this true?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Clearly there is a superstition that it is bad luck to pick them, for fear of bad luck. However I would pick armfuls of them as a child from the "Bluebell Wood" near where I lived in Wales- and I'm still here!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can HIV be treated with bluebell or snowdrops flowers?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for publishing this wonderful information. Many years ago, in fact prior to online enlightenment I bought about 100 ml.blue bell essential oil. I am a collector. I am a resident of Turkey and found the ess. oil, the local daily market & a small shop. It smelled heavenly, so I *wanted* to *have* it. For years & years I had the blue bell oil, of course kept dark & cool, and: oh well...lovely smell, but WHAT are the health and/or medical properties & benefits? This year, I am sorting out my large collection of oils: I found ONE supplier in the UK,but without the info as I found here. The seller appears to be a serious and reliable person, did say that the flowers had been collected near where she lives, in the woods. All very interesting, also loving, and FAIRY-like.
    So: I felt quite blessed owning an essential oil with such loveliness and ancient magic. I did a bit of online research, also discovered that it is this particular type of hyacinth, had a good look at the blue bell, and THEN: I got really excited....you see...they grow all around me in spring, but I never labelled them *blue bells*, just referred to them as small hyacinths. They have this gorgous smell like the large one with a thick stem and its small flowers.
    Wow!! Who in Turkey picked & steam-distilled the BLUE BELL essential oil I bought - I have no idea, but I've got it, 100 ml. and now that I know even more about the Blue Bell I DECIDED to treat the oil, and the flowers AS ANCIENT MAGIC. Also when I shall pick some next spring (from the garden). I particularly like the info they, including the essential oil of course, represent: TRUTH, Humility, Gratitude,constancy. And I refuse 100% to go along with stupid superstitions.I feel 100% comfortable having my precious Bluebell essential oil (in my personal environment) I am 100% sure it did not come from illegal picks and protected UK woods. Then I would have felt very uncomfortable, aiding and abetting, ruining precious UK woods. So: Blue Bells are FAIRY flowers, and the scent as well. And about all that went on during Greek Mythological times: ha.ha. ZEUS just has to comply with my metaphysical wishes. He would probably growl about such nonsense and people superstition. Yes.
    Once again, thank you for your information

    ReplyDelete