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Campanula cespitosa.jpg
Campanula cespitosa
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Campanulaceae

See text

The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap.[2] Among them are several familiar garden plants belonging to the genera Campanula (bellflower), Lobelia, and Platycodon (balloonflower). Campanula rapunculus (rampion) is an almost forgotten vegetable.

This family is almost cosmopolitan, occurring on all continents except Antarctica. In addition, species of the family are native to many remote oceanic islands and archipelagos, such as Hawaii (110 species), Juan Fernandez Islands (4 spp.), Madeira (4 spp.), the Mascarenes (5 spp.), Saint Helena (5 spp.) and Tahiti (5 spp.) Continental areas with high diversity are Greece and the Balkans, Caucasia, eastern Himalaya, the northern Andes, South Africa and California - northern Mexico.

Habitats range from extreme deserts to rainforests and lakes, from the tropics to the high Arctic (Campanula uniflora), and from sea cliffs to high alpine habitats.

Most current classifications include the segregate family Lobeliaceae in Campanulaceae as subfamily Lobelioideae. The genera Cyphia, Cyphocarpus, Nemacladus, Parishella and Pseudonemacladus are treated in one to three separate subfamilies.


Although most Campanulaceae are perennial herbs, there is also a large number of annuals such as Legousia, comprising mostly field weeds, and Cyphocarpus, ephemerals of the Atacama desert. Isotoma hypocrateriformis is a succulent annual from Australia's dry interior. There are also biennials, e.g. Campanula medium. Insular and tropical montane species in particular are often more or less woody and/or have the leaves in a dense rosette. Both traits occur in Cyanea leptostegia from the rain-forests of Kauai, the tallest of Campanulaceae. Lysipomia comprises minute cushion plants of the high Andes, while gigant rosette-forming lobelias (e. g.Lobelia deckenii) are a characteristic component of the vegetation in the alpine zone on the tropical African volcanoes. Brighamia are large stem succulents with ephemeral leaves found on dry coastal cliffs in Hawaii. Far wetter is the habitat of the submerged aquatics Lobelia dortmanna, an isoetid common in oligotrophic lakes in the taiga zone, and Howellia aquatilis, an elodeid growing in ponds in SW North America.

Leaves are often alternate, more rarely opposite or whorled. They are also simple (Petromarula one of very few exceptions), and without stipules.

Flowers are bisexual (dioecious in Dialypetalum) and protandrous. Petals are fused into a corolla that may be bell- or star-shaped in subfamily Campanuloideae, while tubular and bilaterally symmetric in most Lobelioideae. There are most commonly 5-8 lobes. Blue of various shades is the most common petal colour, but purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, white, and green also occur.

Stamens, equal in number to the petals, may be fused into a tube, as in all species of Lobelioideae. The style is in various ways involved in the "presentation" of the pollen, as in several other families of the order Asterales.

Carpel number is usually 2, 3 or 5 (8 in Ostrowskia), and corresponds to the number of stigmatic lobes. The ovary is inferior or, very rarely, superior (e.g. Cyananthus).

Fruits are berries or capsules.

Subfamilies and genera[edit]


Fossil record[edit]


Chemical compounds[edit]

Members of subfamily Lobelioideae contain the alkaloid lobeline. The principal storage carbohydrate of Campanulaceae is inulin, a polyfructan also occurring in the related Asteraceae.



  3. ^ Friis, Else Marie; Crane, Peter R.; Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaard (August 2011). Early Flowers and Angiosperm Evolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521592833. 
  4. ^

External links[edit]