Lobelia erinus L.
bedding lobelia
Annual herb to c. 20 cm tall, sometimes single-stemmed with the slender vegetative shoots tending to trail, but not rooting at nodes; sap slightly milky. Lower lvs and those of vegetative stems with short ciliate petioles. Lamina 1-3 × 0.5-1 cm, elliptic, elliptic-obovate, or spathulate, occasionally lanceolate, generally ciliate, especially towards the narrow attenuate base and on the midrib beneath, crenate or dentate. Lvs below infl. linear or lanceolate, entire, usually glabrous. Infl. a loose raceme of few fls on slender glabrous peduncles 1.5-4 cm long. Calyx 7-12 mm long; lobes linear or subulate, = to > 2× tube, glabrous, often purplish. Corolla 1.1-1.7 cm long to apex of lobes of lower lip, usually dark or violet blue, occasionally pinkish mauve; lower lip usually with white or yellowish throat bands on either side, occasionally corolla concolorous, 3-lobed; lobes (5)-7-10 × c. (3)-5 mm, ± broad-elliptic-oblong or obovate, slanting downwards, often mucronulate. Stamens blue; lower 2 anthers bearded at apex. Capsule c. 5 mm long, narrow-obconic. Seeds c. 0.5 mm long, ellipsoid, brown, glossy.
N.; S.: from Paihia (Bay of Islands) to S. Canterbury and Greymouth.
South Africa 1880
A casual escape from cultivation near gardens, especially in gutters, open places along roadsides, and other similar, open, disturbed sites.
FL Sep-May.
Bedding lobelia, often simply called lobelia, is abundantly cultivated and characteristically forms small, densely bushy plants, but this habit is not apparent from most specimens of wild plants. In N.Z. the sp. is often annual but may perennate in milder areas. One specimen (CHR 157638, Greymouth, Sykes, 2.5.1965), is unusual in that the lower cauline lvs are narrowly lanceolate instead of elliptic to obovate; the fls were medium blue, whereas they were dark blue in all the other specimens of wild plants in which this feature could be determined. Usually, cultivated plants in N.Z. have dark blue fls although plants with pale blue or white fls are grown. Fls are produced until near the end of the plant's life and the later fls are sometimes smaller with the middle lobe of the lower lip 5-7 × 3-5 mm.
