Scientists at the Natural History Museum are asking the public to look out for and record sightings of bluebells to help discover if flowering seasons are changing as a result of climate change. From 2010 onwards the NHM want to document when bluebell flowers appear all across the country.

The survey results will help scientists understand the ongoing changes to bluebells in the UK and to the UK’s climate. It will build a nationwide picture of when bluebells start flowering each year, helping to discover if spring is arriving earlier.

This has been a very cold winter and bluebell flowers have still to appear. In most recent years however we think they are flowering earlier, not least because it is thought that the non-native types which now threaten our bluebells flower earlier.

In the UK there are 3 types of bluebells, the native, Spanish and hybrid.

The familiar native bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, is characteristic of woodlands, hedges and other shady places. Almost half the world's population of this species is found in the UK.

The Spanish bluebell, Hyacinthoides hispanica, is grown in gardens and found in the countryside if it is dumped there. And the hybrid, Hyacinthoides x massartiana, is now more common than its Spanish parent.

Outside the UK, bluebells occur mainly in the western Mediterranean, including North Africa (Morocco to Tunisia), the Iberian Peninsula, and the Maritime Alps of France and Italy.

Go to  www.nhm.ac.uk for more information.