Pale Spike Lobelia

Lobelia spicata Lam. Encyc. 3: 587. 1791 Stem strict, erect, usually unbranched, 20-120 cm. high, 5 mm. in diameter or less at base, usually purplish-red and densely short-pubescent near base, becoming glabrous and green above, often pubescent on the angles formed below the decurrent leaf-bases; uppermost sterile leaves usually not to be distinguished from the lowest bracts of the spike; all the leaves pubescent on both sides with short stiff hairs, especially near the base and margins; infloresr cence a narrow spikelike raceme 10-30 (60) cm. long; pedicels in fruit stout, 2-6 (8) mm. long, rough-puberulent, each with a pair of inconspicuous bracteoles near base; flower-bracts linear to lanceolate, acute, usually denticulate, the upper ones about equaling the pedicels, the lowest ones often leafy, up to 2.5-4 cm. long; corolla glabrous, or pubescent without, the lower lip pubescent within at the base, the tube entire except for the dorsal fissure, 3—4.5 mm. long, the loljcs of the lower lip ovate, somewhat reflcxcd, usually shorter than the tube, up to 3 mm. wide, 3-6 mm. long; two upper lobes lanceolate, recurved; filament-tube (2) 3-3.5 (4) mm. long, the filaments connate about half their length, pubescent at base; two smaller anthers white-tufted at tips, the three larger ones glabrous or pubescent on the backs; seeds oblong, light brown, 0.6-0.8 mm. long.
TvPB toCAtiTv: "Canada." The type specimen (herb. Paris, pbotol) is marked "envoy* de pcnsylvania."
Cauline leaves l-S, much smaller than the basal ones, bract-like; basal leaves ovate to olx>vate or suborbicular, 1.5-5.5 cm.
wide. Afie. I,, spicala vur. scaposa.
Cauline leaves more numerous, as large as the basal ones or tlic latter larking, or, if present, rarely suborbicular. Plants rough -putjcscent, including stem, bracts and calyxlofjes; plants often short (20-50 cm.), with leaves low >/n the Mem; auricles of the hypanthium sniuU or wanting. 466. /.. spicala var. hirllllo. Plants glabrous or pubescent , the calyx-lobes rarely at all ciliate; stems leafy throughout; auricles various. Auricles long-filiform, deflexed, often as long as the
hypanthiimi. i6c. L. spicala var. kploslachys.
Auricles ver>' short or none .
Anthers blue; hypanthium in anthesis flattish;
flower light blue. 46a. L . spicata vox . pani flora .
Anthers white; hypanthium in anthesis roundish (this evident even in the bud); flowers dark purplish-blue. 46(/. L. spicala var. campanulala.
46a. Lobelia spicata var. parviflora A. Gray, Syn. Fl. 2': 6. 1878.
Lobelia spicala Lam. loc. cit., as to type.
^Lobelia Clayloniana Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 153. 1803. (Type from eastern United States.)
Lobelia goodenioides Willd. Hort. Berol. pi. 30. 1804. (Based on a cultivated plant.)
Lobelia pallida Muhl. Cat. 22, in part. 1813.
Lobelia nivea Raf. Ann. Nat. 15. 1820. (Type from Kentucky.)
?Rapunlium Claytonianitm Presl, Prodr. Mon. Lob. 23. 1836.
Dorlmannia spicata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 380. 1891.
Lobelia spicata f. albiftora R. Hoffm. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 36: 334. 1922.
Lobelia spicata var. originalls McVaugh, Rhodora 38; 308. 1936.
Cauline leaves 3-20, usually not appressed to the stem, thiii, sessile, or the lower narrowed into short margined petioles, the lower obtuse, oblanceolate, oblong or obovate, up to 2.5 cm. wide by 10 cm. long, shallowly coarse-dentate or subenlire, the upper gradually smaller, acutelanceolate, the uppermost often more conspicuously denticulate and sometimes merging imperceptibly into the bracts of the inflorescence; basal leaves, if present, obovate, obtuse, pubescent, 1-12, narrowed into well defined petioles; inflorescence usually less than half the height of the plant, interrupted, not noticeably secund, (few-) 30-60(200-) flowered; flower 9-12 mm. long, including hypanthium; corolla white to dark purplish-blue; anther-tube 1.7-2 mm. long, light bluish-gray; hypanthium in anthesis flattish or broad-conic, glabrous or sparingly pubescent, becoming hemispheric in fruit, strongly ribbed, about 3.5 mm. in diameter; capsule one-half to two-thirds inferior, 3.5-6 mm. long; calyx-lobes entire, subulate to deltoid, usually flat, 2-7.5 mm. long, glabrous or somewhat bristly-ciliate; auricles usually present at the base of each lobe, distinctly short-triangular, or longer, in extreme cases filiform, as long as 1 mm., sometimes lacking.
Type locality: Near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Porter, June 25, 1857 (Gray!). Distribution: New Bnmswick to Pennsylvania and in the mountains to Georgia, west to North Dakota and Arkansas.