Campanula grandiflora Jacquin, Hort. Bot. Vindob. 3: 4. 1776; C. glauca Thunberg; Platycodon autumnalis Decaisne; P. chinensis Lindley & Paxton; P. glaucus (Thunberg) Nakai; P. sinensis Lemaire.

Stems 20-120 cm tall, usually glabrous, rarely densely puberulent, simple, rarely branched above. Leaf blade adaxially green, ovate, elliptic, or lanceolate, 2-7 × 0.5-3.5 cm, abaxially glabrous (rarely puberulent along veins) and glaucous, adaxially glabrous, base broadly cuneate or rounded, margin serrate, apex acute or acuminate. Hypanthium hemispherical, obovoid, or obconic, rarely campanulate, glaucous. Calyx lobes triangular or narrowly triangular, sometimes toothlike. Corolla blue or purple (rarely pink or white), 1.5-4.5 cm. Capsule globose, obconic, or obovoid, 0.7-2.5 × 0.7-1.5 cm. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 18, 36.

Sunny herb communities, thickets, rarely in forests; below 2000 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, N Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, E Sichuan (west to Pingwu and Liangshan), SE Yunnan (Mengzi, Wenshan, Yanshan), Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East, SE Siberia); widely cultivated elsewhere].