Bluebells Might Be Under Threat In The Uk

[Erised]

With spring being here now the flowers are coming out again, hopefully this will include native bluebells. It seems that the numbers have been decreasing and this year they're gonna try and find out whether or not the bluebell has become threatened in the UK.
Please help out with this, I'm not asking you to go looking for them but if you happen to come across them when walking the dog, taking the kids to school, going to the supermarket or whatever please take note of the location and try to fill in the form linked to below.

More information can be read here:
Scientists call for bluebell detectives

If you have seen bluebells around please follow this link:
Recording your bluebells


On a completely different subject, 2 pictures that show it's spring again:

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click on images for larger picture​

 

[geo7x]

arent alot of the bluebells we see actually spanish bluebells as opposed to native ones?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes people have been worried about bluebells for quite a while now, but i hope this new bluebell search won't encourage people to start taking them from the wild as there are already too many people doing that as it is.

 

[Erised]

Yup, a lot of the bluebells are indeed spanish or spanish x native hybrids. How to tell the difference between them is explained here. For the research it doesn't really matter whether or not it's native, they want to know about all of them. They would like to know whether it's hybrid/spanish or native which is why the differences are explained on the website.

As to picking bluebells, I do hope it won't get worse. Picking of wild bluebells has been illegal since 1998 btw, so do tell people this if you see them pick the flowers. Doubt that they would listen, but worth the try =)
Also, if you're buying bluebells/bluebell bulbs please check that they are farm grown (or however you call it) and not taken from the wild and sold on.

 

[William]

I think it's possible that the rising population of badgers may be the explanation. Certainly they have been associated with the demise of hedgehogs in some parts of England.