Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

EAR-LEAF LOBELIA

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Lobelia appendiculata A. DC.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Annual or biennial

Height: 6-35 inches

Family: Campanulaceae - Bellflower Family

Flowering Period: June, July

Stems:

Erect to sprawling, slender, glabrous or with scattered, spreading hairs.

Leaves:

Alternate, sessile, sometimes clasping basally; blade thin, broadly lanceolate to oblong, 1 to 3.12 inches long, 1.25 inch wide, mostly glabrous, base clasping, tip rounded or sharp-pointed, margins nearly entire or toothed.

Inflorescences:

Spikes, many-flowered, 6 to15 inches long.

Flowers:

Pedicel less than .25 inch long, pubescent, with pair of bracts at base; bracts linear, exceeding pedicel; calyx somewhat inflated, pubescent, 5-lobed; lobes linear to linear-lanceolate, usually densely bristly-ciliate, sometimes only near tips, small auricles at base; auricles leaf-like, flat, ciliate, lanceolate, 1-3 mm long; corolla 2-lipped; upper corolla lip deeply 2-lobed, cleft extending almost to base of tube; lower lip 3-lobed, wide, longer than upper lip; flowers .4 to .6 inch long; corollas white to pale lavender or pale blue; stamens 5; filaments .08 to .16 inch long, united above into tube; anther tube .08 to .1 inch long, bluish gray.

Fruits:

Capsule, partially exserted from calyx, sometimes nodding; seeds numerous, rough.

Habitat:

Sandy open woods, fields, and roadsides.

Distribution:

Chautauqua, Cherokee, Crawford, and Labette counties in southeast Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Lobelia, for Mathieu de Lobel, a Flemish physician, herbalist, and author. Ear-leaf lobelia is similar to Lobelia spicata but it is distinguished from that species by stems glabrous or with scattered, spreading hairs, leaves with clasping bases, and leaf-like auricles on the calyx lobes.

Ear-leaf lobelia inflorescence