CHILDREN helped to launch a campaign aimed at learning more about the threatened native bluebell on Teesside.

Pupils from St Clare's RC Primary School, Acklam, Middlesbrough, spent the afternoon learning how to identify native and Spanish bluebells at Nature's World, in Acklam.

The exercise was part of a campaign by the Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership to find out where native and Spanish bluebells have been seen in the area.

The public are being urged to complete surveys, available from the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, country parks and libraries, to help work out where the threatened native bluebells, and their Spanish counterparts can be found.

Steve Ashton, people and wildlife manager for the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, said: "The native bluebell is under threat. Competition and crossing with the Spanish bluebell, which was brought into the country as a garden plant, are contributing to its decline.

"The native variety has its bells all on one side and the flowers are fragrant, whereas the Spanish variety has bells all around, is a paler blue and the flowers do not smell.

"This is the first postcard survey we have done.

"But there are two more coming in the near future to help us find out more about where newts and thrushes are in the area.

"It also helps to get communities involved in wildlife."