Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Campanulids: Asterales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Lobelia siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
Read more about Great Blue Lobelia at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
INCLUDING
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Lobelia siphilitica var. siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
INCLUDING PLANTS National Database
Lobelia siphilitica var. ludoviciana
SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 178-06-002:
Lobelia siphilitica FAMILY Campanulaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Lobelia siphilitica
COMMON NAME:
Great Blue Lobelia
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
)
JK Marlow jkm120815_574
August Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
)
JK Marlow jkm120815_574b
August Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
1" bright blue flowers with a white throat stripe, per All About South Carolina Wildflowers (Midgley, 1999).
)
JK Marlow jkm190914_1589
September Swain County NC
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
)
JK Marlow jkm190914_1598
September Swain County NC
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Lobelia lvs w obscure whitish callus-tipped & oft irregular or divergent teeth, per Weakley's Flora.
)
JK Marlow jkm190914_1600
September Swain County NC
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Leaves elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, irregularly crenate, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).
)
JK Marlow jkm190914_1601
September Swain County NC
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Corolla's underside pinstriped with broad white and narrow blue-violet lines, per Weakley's Flora (2020).
)
JK Marlow jkm190914_1611
September Swain County NC
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
)
Steve Marlow snm140906_035b
September Jackson County NC
Creekside/Riverside
Calyx lobes 6-12mm long, denticulate & ciliate, base auriculate, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).
)
Steve Marlow snm140906_037
September Jackson County NC
Creekside/Riverside
)
JK Marlow jkm111008_901
October Jackson County NC
Balsam Mountain Preserve
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Lobelia siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
INCLUDING
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Lobelia siphilitica var. siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
INCLUDING
PLANTS National Database
Lobelia siphilitica var. ludoviciana
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 178-06-002:
Lobelia siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Lobelia siphilitica
856
Forb
Perennial
Habitat: Bottomlands, moist forests, ditches, wet meadows, streambanks, per Weakley's Flora
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Common in Mountains of GA & NC (rare elsewhere in GA-NC-SC)
Click here to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
Click here to see a map showing all occurrences known to SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria. (Zoom in to see more detail.)
DOES THE PLANT HAVE "MILKY SAP"?
Has milky sap (latex)
LEAVES:
Simple
Alternate (basal leaves usually absent or withered at flowering)
FLOWER:
Summer/Fall
Blue
(rarely white)
Bisexual
Bilaterally symmetrical
5-lobed calyx
2-lipped 5-lobed corolla
5 stamens, completely united
Flowers in a terminal raceme
FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Capsule
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- All About South Carolina Wildflowers (Midgley, 1999) p195
- Gardening with Native Plants of the South (Wasowski & Wasowski, 1994, 2020) p162
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002) p146
- Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers (Campbell, Hutson, Sharp, & Hutson, 1962) p128
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Newcomb, 1977) p052
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019) p402
- Wild Flowers of NC, 2nd edition (Justice, Bell, & Lindsey, 2005) p244
- Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005) p258
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005) p301
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998) p169