Creeping Bellflower: Beautiful but Invasive—Restrict to Wild Gardens Only

Campanula rapunculoides (creeping bellflower) charms with 3–4 foot violet flower spikes and heart-shaped leaves—but its aggressive spread earns it noxious weed status in Montana and Wyoming.

Why It's a Problem

• Persistent, thickened root system regenerates from fragments
• Spreads rapidly via root cuttings
• Invades lawns, hedges, vegetable beds, shrub borders
• Resists common herbicides

Control Methods

Amino triazol (applied per label during active growth) proved effective at Wyoming's Horticultural Field Station—also controls poison ivy. Use low-pressure spot spraying to minimize drift; reseed grass in treated areas.

Mechanism

Amino triazol destroys chlorophyll, starving the plant. Without photosynthesis, roots exhaust reserves and die.

Historical Note

In Eurasia/North Africa, roots and basal leaves were eaten as pungent salad greens. L.H. Bailey classified it as biennial; Clifford Cook advised restricting it to "the wildest of wild gardens."

Admire from a distance—this beauty belongs in contained wilderness, not cultivated beds.