Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Bluebell bellflower is rated fire resistant, with four sources supporting its use in fire-conscious landscaping.
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service give it an ignitability score of 9.5 out of 10. Their guidance accepts scores from 8 to 10 for defensible-space zones 1 and 2, so bluebell bellflower clears that threshold comfortably. Michigan State University Extension also considers it wildfire resistant and recommends it for Michigan’s climate.
The regional lists point the same way. FireSmart BC calls it a FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant, although the program flags it as needing more research. Fremont County Firewise includes common harebell among its ground covers; that list generally describes its Firewise plants as low growing, low in debris, and relatively moist. Those general traits should not be treated as measurements of this particular plant, but its inclusion still counts as a recommendation.
Bluebell bellflower is a high-water perennial in the bellflower family. The agreement across British Columbia, Michigan, Colorado, and Wyoming makes the practical conclusion unusually consistent: it is a reasonable fire-resistant choice, while FireSmart BC’s research flag cautions against treating any plant as proven safe under every condition.
Form
perennial
Water need
high
Rated in
British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Fremont County, Wyoming; Michigan / Great Lakes
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.
Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25
The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, IA, ID, IL, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Native range
The legacy compatibility field lists CO in native range; its field-level source was not retained.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented range 2–7.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants: suitable for defensible-space zones 1-2 (score 8+) [CSU defensible-space zone] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Campanula rotundifolia — Common Harebell”
Listed in the source's Ground Covers section; the page describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist.
