Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

September 15th, 2012. We drove over Patterson Gap Road from Betty’s Creek Road to Persimmon Road. Patterson Gap lies on the Tennessee Valley Divide in the Chattahoochee National Forest. The road is graveled and water erosion has produced some rough sections.

Our first find was Lobelia siphilitica (Great Blue Lobelia), named because it was believed to be a cure for syphilis. They were blooming beside the road in a moist, shaded area. I had to use artificial light to photograph the flowers. The photographs don’t adequately show how intensely blue the flowers are.

The plant was about 15 to 18 inches tall

 

Closer views of the flower stem. The characteristic hairy calyces are clearly visible.

The leaf

The tip of the flowering stem

Flowers with immature anther tubes. The characteristic hairy calyces are clearly visible.

Flowers with mature anthers. Pollen is visible on the upper and lower flowers.

Lobelia siphilitica (Great Blue Lobelia) is native to the United States where it’s found in states east of a line from North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, with the exception of Florida. In Georgia, it’s been documented only Rabun County in the far northeast and Catoosa, Dade, Walker and Floyd counties in the far northwest of the state.

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Identification resources:

Southeastern Flora: Lobelia siphilitica (Great Blue Lobelia)

Missouri Plants: Lobelia siphilitica 

Illinois Wildflowers: Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Distribution:

United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: Lobelia siphilitica (Great Blue Lobelia)

Downy Lobelia (Lobelia puberula)

August 25^th, 2012. Downy Lobelia (Lobelia puberula) – at least that’s my conclusion. I don’t know lobelias very well but this identification seems to fit the characteristics of these plants we found growing on the east-facing side of the dam at Pond 6A in the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in Jones County, Georgia.

There were just a few plants growing on the south end of the dam. They would have gone unnoticed if it hadn’t been for the flash of blue as was drove over the dam. The plants are in the center of the photo just a little above the edge of the pond

At ‘lobelia level’, looking out along the south side of the pond.

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The leaves

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The arrangement of the flowers around the ‘downy’ stem. I’d never really noticed until this year that the flowers are arranged in a spiral pattern up the stem.

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Closer views of individual flowers

Lobelia puberula (Downy Lobelia, Hairy Lobelia) is native to the United States, where it’s found in states southeast of a line from New Jersey to Illinois and southwest to Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. In Georgia, it’s found in many counties throughout the state but more frequently in north Georgia and in southern counties.

US

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LOPU

Georgia

http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=LOPU

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Identification resources:

- Southeastern Flora: Lobelia puberula (Downy Lobelia)

- Name that Plant: Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Lobelia puberula (Downy Lobelia, Hairy Lobelia)

- Missouri Plants: Lobelia puberula

- Alabama Plants: Lobelia puberula 

Distribution:

- United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: Lobelia puberula (Downy Lobelia)

- University of North Carolina Herbarium: Lobelia puberula

Palespike Lobelia (Lobelia spicata)

August 18^th, 2012. Again, along the Saxon-Norman-Broad road, I spotted two plants of Lobelia spicata (Palespike Lobelia) growing in the shade at the very edge of the roadway.

The spike

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 Closer views of individual blooms

Lobelia spicata (Palespike Lobelia) is native to the United States where it’s found in from Maine west to Montana, and south through South Dakota to Texas. In Georgia, it’s found only in northern counties; it’s been documented as far south as Greene County.

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Identification resources:

- Southeastern Flora: Lobelia spicata (Pale Spike Lobelia)

- Name that Plant: Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Lobelia spicata (Spiked Lobelia, Pale Spiked Lobelia)

- Missouri Plants: Lobelia spicata

Distribution:

- United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: Lobelia spicata (Palespike Lobelia)

- University of North Carolina Herbarium: Lobelia spicata