Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Campanulids: Asterales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA (6/30/18):
Lobelia siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
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
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.
)
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.
)
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.
)
Steve Marlow snm140906_037
September Jackson County NC
Creekside/Riverside
)
JK Marlow jkm111008_901
October Jackson County NC
Balsam Mountain Preserve
WEAKLEY'S FLORA (6/30/18):
Lobelia siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
INCLUDING
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Lobelia siphilitica var. siphilitica
FAMILY
Campanulaceae
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
Native to North Carolina & Georgia
Documented growing wild in GA NC -
Common in Mountains (rare in NC Piedmont)
Look for it in bottomlands, moist forests, ditches, wet meadows, streambanks, per Weakley's Flora
Click here to see a more detailed map from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium,
or click here to see a map from SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
...Wet
...Moist
...Variable
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 p195
- Gardening with Native Plants of the South p162
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee p146
- Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers p128
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide p052
- Southern Appalachian Wildflowers p158
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast p402
- Wild Flowers of NC, 1st edition p186
- Wild Flowers of NC, 2nd edition p244
- Wildflowers of Tennessee p258
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians p301
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains p169