Lobelia dortmanna

Lobelia dortmanna
Plants in pond habitat
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Campanulaceae
Subfamily:	Lobelioideae
Genus:	Lobelia
Species:	L. dortmanna
Binomial name
Lobelia dortmanna L.

Lobelia dortmanna (Water Lobelia) is a species of Lobelia native to cool temperate regions of northern Europe (the British Isles and northwest France east to northwest Russia) and northern North America (both coasts; Newfoundland south to New Jersey and west to the Great Lakes in the east, and British Columbia south to Oregon in the west).

It is a stoloniferous herbaceous perennial aquatic plant growing to 70–200 cm tall in acidic pools and lakes up to 2 m deep. The leaves are linear to oblong, 2.5–7.5 cm long, produced in a basal rosette underwater. The flowers are 1–2 cm long, with a five-lobed white to pale pink or pale blue corolla, produced one to ten on an erect raceme held above the water surface. The fruit is a capsule 5-10 mm long and 3-5 mm wide, containing numerous small seeds.

Habitus and Leaves

The water lobelia is a perennial herbaceous plant, plant height 40-70 cm (up to 200 cm is reached). This hemicryptophyte is an aquatic plant (hydrophyte), whose leaves grow submerged, only the inflorescence is above the water. The roots anchor the plant in the bottom. The completely submerged basal rosette leaves have smoth edges and blunt endings, they are plump and are up to 8 cm long. The leaf margins often turn up and fold together to form a "pipe". On the hollow, smooth stems are just a few alternating, thin, tiny leaves, particularly in the inflorescence.

Photo gallery

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  Flowers

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  Illustration (plant on right)