Life

Stephen Colton's Take On Nature: Bluebells signs that spring is progressing with vigour

The common bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta
The common bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta The common bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta

THE call of fledged chicks, daily birdsong, and abundance of wildflowers with attendant insects, along our verges and meadows, all indicate the business of spring is progressing with vigour despite some indifferent weather.

Coupled with the sound of children playing in our school yards and on football pitches, there is a sense of renewal and emergence towards a longed for, more familiar world.

Walking recently, through the woodlands of Castle Archdale and around the grounds of Necarne estate, both in Co Fermanagh, I experienced the spectacle of glowing bluebell carpets, those enchanting native flowers so symbolic of spring. Their violet-blue, tubular-belled flowers on drooping stems like the ‘smiling flowers’ and ‘fairy gifts’ Anne Bronte writes about in her poem The Bluebell from the 1800s, where she also says of them, ‘A fine and subtle spirit dwells/In every little flower’.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta or common bluebell, is a member of the hyacinth family but this ‘non-scripta’ species is so named to distinguish it from the flower made famous in Greek mythology, the purple hyacinth.

Legend says that the sun god Apollo was so distressed at the death of the young prince Hyacinthus that he raised the flower from drops of his blood and traced the letters 'Ai, Ai’, the cry of ‘alas’ on its petals, to ensure his grief would remain alive on earth. Our native bluebell bears no such lettering, hence the nonscripta or ‘not written on’ suffix.

Some versions say Hyacinthus was killed accidently while others offer that it was the jealous god of winds, Zephyrus who carried out the deed. Coinnle corra in Irish, the bluebell features prominently in our own legends and folklore, with the flower thought to be of the ‘fairy’ world. It was believed spells were cast on those who either picked the plant or walked carelessly through a blanket of the flowers and that when the bell of the bluebell rang, fairies were summoned to meet.

One of its alternative names is the fairy flower. In the ancient saga of The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel, the High King of Ireland, Eochaid Feidlech said of the beautiful Étain, her eyes were, ‘Blue as a hyacinth’.

The bluebell is recognised as an important ‘indicator species‘, a sign of the probable presence of ancient woodland, while its scented flowers provide an important source of nectar for some woodland butterflies, bees and hoverflies.

They prefer native broadleaf woodlands where the not fully clothed trees allow April sun to reach the forest floor and encourage their breathtaking flowering display.

Although protected, our bluebell faces threats from habitat destruction, illegal collection from the wild and the introduction and spread of the similar looking Spanish bluebell which is more vigorous and can cross breed, modifying the characteristics of our native form. This Spanish plant grows more upright with flowers opening all around the stem and not drooping to one side as in the native species.

Throughout human history, bluebells have been used for various purposes but scarcely in folk medicine because of their poisonous nature. That said, records exist of them being used in Co Cavan to cure throat conditions and Peter Wyse Jackson, in Ireland's Generous Nature (2014), mentions that Dublin physician and naturalist John Rutty wrote in 1772 the bluebell was a source of ‘glutinous juice whereof paste is made’.

The gummy sap from their bulbs was used as a glue for bookbinding, its toxicity repelling insects from any potential damage, and also to set tail feathers on arrows.

An enduring emblem of spring, bluebells surely are, as Tennyson described them ‘like the blue sky breaking up through the earth’. Happy Biodiversity Day.