Lobelia diastateoides McVaugh

Lobelia diastateoides McVaugh, Am. Midi. Nat 24: 695. 1940.
Stems simple, erect or decumbent, 1.5 mm. in diameter or less, purplish at base, 20-40 cm. high, glabrous above, somewhat pubescent below with sharp stiff whitish hairs; leaves cauline, more or less crowded on the lower half of the plant, spreading, stiff when dry, the upper ones lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, acute, sessile, narrowed at base, the lower ones broader, rhombic-ovate, acute at base, acute or obtuse at tip, narrowed to a subpetiolar base about 5 ram. long; margins crenate or shallowly sharp-serrate with 3-6 teeth per cm., the blades pubescent above, glabrous beneath or pubescent, especially on the veins, those of middle and lower leaves (except the very lowest) 0.6-1.1 cm. wide, 1.4-3 cm. long; inflorescence usually plainly secund, 5-12 cm. long, few-15-flowered, appearing pedunculate; pedicels slender, 12-25 mm. long in fruit, ascending, arcuate, the distal end upcurved, glabrous or sparsely pubescent at very base, ebracteolate; flower-bracts linear, somewhat appressed, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, entire or rarely with a few small teeth, up to 1 mm. wide by 15 mm. long; flower 9-10 mm. long, including hypanthium; corolla glabrous, "light blue, two top segments deeper or sometimes violet" (according to Camp), the tube 4-5 mm. long, cleft dorsally to a point 1.5-2.2 mm. from base, the two upper lobes narrowly elliptic, erect (?), about 0.5 mm. wide, 4 mm. long, the three lower lobes oblong, about 1.5 mm. wide, 3.5 mm. long; filament-tube 4.0-4.8 mm. long, glabrous, the filaments connate about a third of their length; anther-tube 1.5-1.8 mm. long, the three larger anthers sparsely pubescent; hypanthium in anthesis glabrous, shallowly cup-shaped, broader than high, the base flattened, in fruit becoming acute at base, about as high as broad; capsule ellipsoid-fusiform, 1.5-2.5 nmi. in diameter, 4.5-5.5 mm. long, superior or essentially so; calyx-lobes subulate, attenuate, entire, glabrous or very sparsely ciliate on margin, 0.3 mm. wide or less at base, 2.5-3.5 mm. long; seeds ellipsoid, lustrous, about 0.6 mm. in length.
TvPE locality: Mountain slopes near Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Camp 2205 (NY!). Distribution: Mountains of Chiapas and Oaxaca.