tuftybell, any of about 260 species of annual and perennial herbs of the genus Wahlenbergia, of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), mostly native to south temperate regions of the Old World. Ten species of the genus Edraianthus often are included in Wahlenbergia.
The ivy-leaved bellflower (W. hederacea), a European annual, has delicate, hairless, creeping stems and small, pale-blue, veined, bell-shaped flowers. W. marginata, a hairy, erect perennial from East Asia, now is naturalized in southern North America; it is about 45 cm (18 inches) tall, with blue or white, upward facing flowers.