Lobelia floridana Chapm.

Florida Lobelia

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Florida Lobelia is a native herbaceous perennial in the Bellflower family (Campanulaceae). It is native to the southern tier of counties in Alabama. Florida Lobelia occurs in bogs, in flatwood depression ponds, and in water-filled roadside ditches. It often grows in shallow water. Florida Lobelia is a perennial with thick cord-like roots and a short erect caudex. The leaves are chiefly basal with stem leaves few and much reduced in size. Leaves are linear to oblanceolate in outline, glabrous, with entire or crenate margins. The margins of the leaves usually have callosities (a thickened and hardened bump). Flowers are produced in elongate racemes. Individual flowers are pedicellate with a subtending bract and a pair of small bracteoles. The calyx has 5 triangular lobes with small auricles in the sinuses. The corolla is 2-lipped, white to pale blue or pale pink in color, and not fenestrate (with slits along the tube). The fruit is a capsule. Florida Lobelia can be grown from seed sown on the surface of moist potting soil. The plants require constant moisture and full sun.—A. Diamond

Spaulding & Barger (2016) found that all specimens of Lobelia paludosa they examined from Alabama were misidentified and were annotated to L. floridana. Any specimens below that are identified as L. paludosa are most likely misidentified and should be reevaluated and annotated accordingly.

Native OBL (NWPL)

Spaulding, D.D. and T.W. Barger 2016. Keys, distribution, and taxonomic notes for the Lobelias (Lobelia,Campanulaceae) of Alabama and adjacent states. Phytoneuron 2016-76: 1–60.