Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)

The Friends of Rowley Hills are grateful to Sandwell Council Parks and Green spaces for their recent support to protect a rare floral display of Harebells that are growing on the hillside above Bury Hill Park.

Our organisation requested that the grass cutting be delayed while these plants were in flower, until it was time for them to seed. The Harebell, a native plant with delicate blue bell-shaped flowers, was once very common but has declined alarmingly in our area in recent years. Up on the Rowley Hills above Bury Hill Park is the largest population of this plant left in Sandwell and probably the largest population remaining in the whole of Birmingham & the Black Country. Now that the cutting has been delayed, these flowers will have enough time to finish flowering and set seed, to ensure that they continue to thrive on the hills and that local people can continue to enjoy them. It’s great news for conservation to get such support from Sandwell Council.

Bury Hill Harebells, July 2015 (image © Mike Poulton)