Great Lobelia

(Lobelia siphilitica)

 

Color Photograph: Midwestern wetland flora: Field office guide to plant species. U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service, Midwest National Technical Center.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Great Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Identification: Flowers large, blue-violet, with 5 petals fused for lower two-thirds into a tube and the apical ends free. Lower three petals hanging downward. Underside of lower three petals and underside of corolla with white stripes. Upper two petals reared upward. Flowers arranged along the stem, arising from the leaf axils. Leaves blade-shaped, sessile to the stem, and with finely toothed outer margins. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Distribution: Throughout southeastern Canada and the eastern United States. Occurs also in the central plains region.

Habitat: Great Lobelia is found in swamps and other low, wet ground.

Flowering period: August to September.

Great Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Similar Species:

 The large violet-blue flowers, with white stripes, and their arrangement along the stem should easily separate Great Lobelia from other species in the genus.

Similar Species

No Similar Species