2024 Edition • Donate • Get the App • Cite this Page
X

Colors

Data mode

Account

Login
Sign up

Support FSUS...

We've finished our 2024 fundraiser. Many thanks to those who have given! It's not too late to support us (click here)...

Copy permalink to share

Lobelia puberula Michaux. Downy Lobelia, Purple Dewdrop. Phen: Jul-Oct. Hab: Forests, openings. Dist: NJ, se. PA, s. OH,s. IN, s. IL, se. MO, AR, and OK, south to c. peninsular FL and s. TX.

Origin/Endemic status: Endemic

Taxonomy Comments: A number of varieties are sometimes recognized; see synonymy and references.

Synonymy ⓘ: = Ar, C, Fl7, G, GW2, K4, Mo2, NcTx, Pa, RAB, S, Tat, Tn, Tx, Va, W, WH3, McVaugh (1936a), Spaulding & Barger (2016); = Lobelia puberula Michx. var. puberula – Spaulding & Barger (2016); > Lobelia puberula Michx. – McVaugh (1936a); > Lobelia puberula Michx. – McVaugh (1936a); > Lobelia puberula Michx. var. mineolana – F, K1; > Lobelia puberula Michx. var. pauciflora Bush – K3; > Lobelia puberula Michx. var. puberula – F, K1, K3; > Lobelia puberula Michx. var. simulans – F, Il, K1

Show in key(s)

Show parent genus

Wetland Indicator Status:

  • Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FACW
  • Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FACW
  • Great Plains: FACW
  • Midwest: FACW
  • Northcentral & Northeast: FACW

Heliophily ⓘ: 8

Your browser does not support SVGs

Hover over a shape, letter, icon, or arrow on the map for definition or see the legend.

image of plant© Grant Morrow Parkins | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Jim Fowler | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Scott Ward | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Alan M. Cressler | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Joey Shaw source | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Bruce A. Sorrie | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Scott Ward | Original Image ⭷

Feedback

See something wrong or missing on about Lobelia puberula? Let us know here: (Please include your name and email if at all complicated so we can clarify if needed.) We greatly appreciate feedback, and will include updates from you in our next webapp update, which can take a few months.


Horticultural Information

NCBG trait

Intro: Erect perennial of forests and openings.

Stems: Stems mostly unbranched, purple-tinged and hairy.

Leaves: Leaves alternate, sessile, oval to lance-shaped, to 4½ in. long, the margins with tiny callus-tipped teeth, hairy.

Inforescence:

Flowers: Flowers in a crowded terminal spike, each on a spreading-ascending short stalk flanked by 2 leaf-like bracts; bluish-purple; ½-1 in. long; bilaterally symmetric and tubular; opening to 2 spreading lips, the upper one divided into 2 narrow, erect lobes and the lower one divided into 3 wider lobes with white markings. The short-tubular calyx has 4 lance-shaped lobes.

Fruits: Fruit a rounded capsule.

Comments:

Height: 2-4 ft.

plant sale text: Lobelias are generally easy to grow, as well as attractive to butterflies, and this species is no exception. Downy Lobelia is similar to Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) though it is taller and more delicate in appearance. The species name puberula refers to its pubescent, or hairy, stems and leaves. Plants of this species have been found growing in nearly every county in North Carolina. They thrive in bogs, meadows and woodlands.

bloom table text:

description: Erect perennial of forests and openings.

stems: Stems mostly unbranched, purple-tinged and hairy.

leaves: Leaves alternate, sessile, oval to lance-shaped, to 4½ in. long, the margins with tiny callus-tipped teeth, hairy.

inflorescence:

flowers: Flowers in a crowded terminal spike, each on a spreading-ascending short stalk flanked by 2 leaf-like bracts; bluish-purple; ½-1 in. long; bilaterally symmetric and tubular; opening to 2 spreading lips, the upper one divided into 2 narrow, erect lobes and the lower one divided into 3 wider lobes with white markings. The short-tubular calyx has 4 lance-shaped lobes.

fruits: Fruit a rounded capsule.

comments:

cultural notes:

germination code:

native range: eastern North America