Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

47. Campanulaceae, the Bellflower Family

2. Lovelia L. -- Lovelia

2. Lobelia siphilitica L. -- Blue cardinal-flower

Erect perennial (1)2-8 dm tall, often flowering the first year; stems sparsely ciliate on decurrent leaf bases. Leaves sessile, oblong or elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 2-12 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, reduced upward and becoming bractlike in the inflorescence, acute or blunt-tipped, irregularly crenate-serrate, narrowed to the base. Racemes usually many-flowered (few-flowered on depauperate specimens), mostly 1-3 dm long; pedicels ascending, 4-10 mm long. Sepals triangular to lanceolate, 5-19 mm long, usually with narrow appendages toward the base; corolla showy, dark blue with the lower lip longitudinally blue-and-white striped, 16-30 mm long. Aug--Sep. Stream banks, shores, wet meadows and swampy places; se ND, e and s SD and throughout NE; (ME to Man., s to NC, TX and CO).


Lobelia siphilitica.

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