Lobelia puberula

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Lobelia puberula
Lobelia puberula.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Campanulaceae
Genus: Lobelia
Species:
L. puberula
Binomial name
Lobelia puberula

Lobelia puberula, or downy lobelia, is a perennial herbaceous wildflower in the Bellflower family (Campanulaceae) native to eastern and south central United States. [1] It is the most common blue-flowered Lobelia in the Southeast. [2] It grows in mesic (moderate moisture) to hydric (moist) habitats in sun or partial shade. [3] [4]

Description

Downy lobelia is a perennial herb that grows up to 2.5 ft (1 m) tall. Leaves are simple with a toothed margin. The flowers are blue to violet, five-lobed, and bloom from July to October. [5]

Lobelia puberula is similar to two other Lobelia species in to the Eastern United States, Lobelia inflata (Indian tobacco) and Lobelia siphilitica (great lobelia); all display the characteristic "lip" petal near the opening of the flower and the "milky" liquid the plant excretes. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Lobelia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Lobelia is a genus of flowering plants comprising 415 species, with a subcosmopolitan distribution primarily in tropical to warm temperate regions of the world, a few species extending into cooler temperate regions. They are known generally as lobelias.

<i>Gelsemium sempervirens</i> Species of plant

Gelsemium sempervirens is a twining vine in the family Gelsemiaceae, native to subtropical and tropical America: Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and southeastern and south-central United States. It has a number of common names including yellow jessamine or confederate jessamine or jasmine, Carolina jasmine or jessamine, evening trumpetflower, gelsemium and woodbine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lobelioideae</span> Subfamily of flowering plants

Lobelioideae is a subfamily of the plant family Campanulaceae. It contains 32 genera, totalling about 1200 species. Some of the larger genera are Lobelia, Siphocampylus, Centropogon, Burmeistera and Cyanea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campanulaceae</span> Family of flowering plants comprising bellflowers

The family Campanulaceae, of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belonging to the genera Campanula (bellflower), Lobelia, and Platycodon (balloonflower). Campanula rapunculus and Codonopsis lanceolata are eaten as vegetables. Lobelia inflata, L. siphilitica and L. tupa and others have been used as medicinal plants. Campanula rapunculoides may be a troublesome weed, particularly in gardens, while Legousia spp. may occur in arable fields.

<i>Xerophyllum asphodeloides</i> Species of flowering plant

Xerophyllum asphodeloides is a North American species of flowering plants in the Melanthiaceae known by the common names turkey beard, eastern turkeybeard, beartongue, grass-leaved helonias, and mountain asphodel. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs in the southern Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to Alabama, and also in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

<i>Lobelia cardinalis</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia cardinalis, the cardinal flower, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae native to the Americas, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America to northern Colombia.

<i>Caulophyllum</i> Genus of flowering plants belonging to the barberry family

Caulophyllum is a small genus of perennial herbs belonging to the family Berberidaceae and closely related to the Eurasian genera Leontice and Gymnospermium. It is native to eastern Asia and eastern North America. These plants are distinctive spring wildflowers, which grow in moist, rich woodland, it is known for its large triple-compound leaf, and large blue, berry-like fruits. Unlike many spring wildflowers, it is not an ephemeral plant and persists throughout much of the summer. Common names for plants in this genus include blue cohosh, squaw root, and papoose root. As hinted at by its common names, this plant is well known as an alternative medicine for inducing childbirth and menstrual flow; it is also considered a poisonous plant.

<i>Lobelia erinus</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia erinus is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae, native to southern Africa.

<i>Lobelia dortmanna</i> Species of aquatic plant

Lobelia dortmanna, Dortmann's cardinalflower or water lobelia, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This stoloniferous herbaceous perennial aquatic plant with basal leaf-rosettes and flower stalks grows to 0.7–2 m (2.3–6.6 ft) tall. The flowers are 1–2 cm long, with a five-lobed white to pale pink or pale blue corolla, produced in groups of one to ten on an erect raceme held above the water surface. The fruit is a capsule 5–10 mm long and 3–5 mm wide, containing numerous small seeds.

<i>Lobelia inflata</i> Species of plant

Lobelia inflata, also known as Indian tobacco or puke weed, is a species of Lobelia native to eastern North America, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern United States to Alabama and west to Kansas.

<i>Lobelia siphilitica</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia siphilitica, the great blue lobelia, great lobelia, or blue cardinal flower, is a plant species within the family Campanulaceae. It is an herbaceous perennial dicot native to eastern and central Canada and United States. There are two recognized varieties of Lobelia siphilitica, var. siphilitica and var. ludoviciana. Blooming from August to October, it is short-lived, lasting only for a few years.

<i>Helianthus maximiliani</i> Species of sunflower

Helianthus maximiliani is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name Maximilian sunflower.

<i>Lobelia kalmii</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia kalmii is a species of flowering plant with a distribution primarily across Canada and the northern United States in temperate and boreal regions. It was formerly known as Lobelia strictiflora (Rydb.) It is commonly known as Kalm's lobelia, Ontario lobelia and Brook lobelia.

<i>Scutellaria incana</i> Species of flowering plant

Scutellaria incana, the hoary skullcap or downy skullcap, is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is native to North America. It is a perennial flowering plant and is primarily found in the eastern United States as well as some parts of the Midwest.

<i>Blephilia hirsuta</i> Species of flowering plant

Blephilia hirsuta is an herbaceous perennial of the mint family Lamiaceae native to eastern North America. It is commonly called hairy wood-mint or hairy pagoda plant.

<i>Blephilia ciliata</i> Species of plant

Blephilia ciliata is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the Lamiaceae (mint) family native to central and eastern North America. It is commonly called downy wood mint. Other common names include downy pagoda-plant, sunny woodmint and Ohio horsemint.

<i>Lobelia laxiflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia laxiflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Campanulaceae. It is native to the Americas, where it is distributed in South, Central, and North America as far north as Arizona in the United States. It is known by several English-language common names, including Mexican lobelia, Sierra Madre lobelia, Mexican cardinalflower, looseflowers lobelia, and drooping lobelia. In Spanish and Nahuatl it is known as aretitos, acaxóchitl, and chilpanxóchitl. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental.

<i>Helianthus mollis</i> Species of sunflower

Helianthus mollis is a species of sunflower known by the common names ashy sunflower, hairy sunflower or downy sunflower. It is widespread across much of the United States and Canada, primarily the Great Lakes region from Ontario south to Texas and Alabama. Additional populations are found in the states of the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Georgia, but these appear to be introduced.

<i>Gentiana puberulenta</i> Species of plant

Gentiana puberulenta, the downy gentian, is a branchless perennial plant of the Gentianaceae family native to North America. It is about ¾–1½' tall, with bright blue to deep blue-violet bell-shaped, upright, five-lobed flowers measuring 1½ to 2¼ inches across when fully open. Flowers grow in clusters of 1–8 at the apex of the plant. Lanceolate, sessile, glossy leaves up to 3" long and 1¼" across are arranged oppositely along the central stem, except at the apex where they grow in whorls of 3–7. Gentiana puberulenta grows in dry upland prairies and woods and rocky open slopes.

<i>Lobelia spicata</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia spicata, commonly called the pale spiked lobelia, is a flowering plant in the bellflower family.

References

  1. "Loeblia puberula". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  2. Spaulding, Dan; Barger, T.Wayne (2016). "Keys, distribution, and taxonomic notes for the Lobelias (Lobelia, Campanulaceae) of Alabama and adjacent states" (PDF). Phytoneuron. 2016–76: 1–60. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
  3. Missouri Plants
  4. "Lobelia puberula". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  5. North Carolina Wildflowers
  6. Caruso, C. M.; Peterson, S. B.; Ridley, C. E. (2003), "Natural selection on floral traits of Lobelia (Lobeliaceae): spatial and temporal variation", American Journal of Botany, 90 (9): 1333–40, doi: 10.3732/ajb.90.9.1333 , PMID   21659233