Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Lobelia erinus

Family

Campanulaceae

Flowering season

June to September - longer in mild winters in the South

and the Southwest.

English distribution

The garden plant is found throughout the country.

The escape is scattered throughout the country but is

most common in the Midlands and the South and least

common in the North.

See the BSBI distribution map for Garden Lobelia

The garden plant is found throughout the country.

Habitat

It is a neophyte, which was introduced into England

in the 1750s and first noted in the wild in the 1910s.

It grows in waste places and in the cracks of pavements

and at the base of walls.

It varies from being a casual to fully naturalised. I have

seen it growing in the same place at the base of a wall

over 5 years.

Description

Garden Lobelia is a non-native, sprawling, annual,

biennial or perennial herb, growing up to 20cm.

The flowers are made up of a corolla tube with 5 lobes

– 3 are larger and lip-like and 2 are small and rabbit-ear

-like.

It is usually blue, especially those growing in the wild,

but cultivated flowers range from various shades of blue,

purple, red and white.

The sepals are pointed and spreading.

Bracts are small and leaf-like.

Lower leaves are lanceolate to oval and toothed.

Upper leaves are lanceolate to linear..

Stems are erect to sprawling.