Bluebells

A trip to Hurcott Pools and Woods nature reserve, Kidderminster, is strongly recommended, as these are now a sea of blue.

I always find it such an uplifting experience to enter the woods filled with the scent and colour of bluebells.

It is as though all your troubles are just soaked up by the beauty of the scene, so I find it quite disturbing to think that bluebell woods are among the habitats which are disappearing from our planet.

Bluebell woods are typically British habitats, which are found in very few other countries, and then not in the quantities we have in this country.

Broadleaf woods as a whole have been disappearing from Britain over recent years, and the bluebells depend on these woodlands to exist.

The bluebell has tied its life-cycle to that of the unfolding of the tree canopy. Growing from bulbs, the bluebells' leaves are among the first to emerge following the worst of the winter.

The leaves are tough and can put up with the rigours of early morning frosts and still gather effectively the early spring sunshine.

Then, just as the majority of woodland trees begin to unfold their leaves, the bluebells open up their flowers, attracting insects to pollinate them.

Being such a specialist species, if the tree cover is removed or over-thinned, plants which are less well-adapted to beating the woodland canopy shade but are of taller stature and more vigorous growth, take over, and swamp out the bluebells.

Providing the bulbs remain intact, bluebells can recover if the area is rapidly planted up, but will take many years to recapture their former density.

Once lost from an area it is very difficult for bluebells to re-colonise an area or even to colonise new areas such as newly-planted woodland. This is due to the inefficiency of the bluebells' reproductive system.

Once pollinated, the bluebell flowers mature into vase-like structures which contain relatively few large seeds, unlike many plants which use elaborate seed distribution techniques, such as lofting their seeds with the wind, through fruits or even physically projecting them.

The bluebells rely on their stalks falling over and the seeds rolling out, which only get the seeds at most 50m from their parents.

I addition it takes a bluebell, depending on the environmental conditions, somewhere between three and seven years to grow from seed to a plant that can reproduce a flower.

For these reasons it is important that we look after our remaining woods and help maintain the tree shade where patches of bluebells have established, in areas where they are not as predominant as Hurcott woods. This will allow them to slowly expand their habitat.