Kalm's Lobelia

Hummingbirds frequent the flowers for nectar. (NPIN, 2007)

This plant is listed by the U.S. federal government or a state. Common names are from state and federal lists. In New Hampshire Kalm's lobelia is listed as Threatened. In Pennsylvania brook lobelia is listed as Endangered. In Washington Kalm's lobelia is listed as Endangered. (USDA PLANTS, 2009)

It flowers in July and August. This is a native perennial. (Weatherbee, 2006) It flowers in the summer.(Peattie, 1930) Bloom time is July, August, September, and October. (NPIN, 2007)

Its native range extends from Newfoundland to British Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. (Weatherbee, 2006)

USA: CT , ID , IL , IN , IA , ME , MA , MI , MN , MT , NH , NJ , NY , ND , OH , PA , SD , VT , WA , WV , WI (NPIN, 2007)

Canada: NB , NL , NS (NPIN, 2007)

This is an obligate wetland plant that very rarely occurs elsewhere. The plant is unlikely to be present in modified landscapes. It is a calciphile (alkaline-loving plant) and grows primarily on sandy, gravelly, or marly shores. It is also found inland in marly ditches, fens, and cedar woods. (Weatherbee, 2006) The plant inhabits wet limy shores and bogs. (Peattie, 1930)

Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal-flower) has a similar flower structure, but has bright red spidery flowers. Lobelia siphilitica(great blue lobelia) has large blue flowers. (Weatherbee, 2006)

Overall Delicate blue, irregularly shaped flowers are born on smooth stems. (Weatherbee, 2006) The plant is angled and slender. (Peattie, 1930)

Flowers are irregularly shaped, with a fused, three-lobed bottom lip and a two-lobed top lip. The flowers are arranged in loose racemes (elongated flower heads), are blue with a white center, and are sometimes secund (leaning to one side). The bottom lip of the flower is anatomically the upper lip, since the flower twists 180 degrees on its stem as it matures. (Weatherbee, 2006) The flower corolla is pale blue. The corolla bears a straight tube split down the upper side. Two of the anthers may be bearded at the top. (Peattie, 1930) Bloom color may be white or blue. (NPIN, 2007)

Fruit Calyx-lobes may cover the pod. The pod opening is at the top, and it is 2-celled. (Peattie, 1930)

Leaves The lower leaves are narrowly spatula shaped and often deciduous (falling off). Stem leaves are linear, erect, and entire (no teeth). Very robust plants may have slightly longer, toothed leaves. (Weatherbee, 2006) Leaves are linear. The pedicels (small stalks) are very slender, and not as long as the threadform bracts. (Peattie, 1930)

Stems are smooth. (Weatherbee, 2006)

Warning: POISONOUS PARTS: All parts. Toxic only if eaten in large quantities. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, salivation, exhaustion and weakness, dilation of pupils, convulsions, and coma. Toxic Principle: Alkaloids lobelamine, lobeline, and others, plus a volatile oil. (Poisonous Plants of N.C. via NPIN, 2007)

Plant is 10-50 cm tall. (Peattie, 1930)

Flowers are 7-13 mm (1/4-1/2") long. (Weatherbee, 2006) Corolla (full length) is 1 cm. (Peattie, 1930)

Stems is 10-40 cm (4-16") tall. (Weatherbee, 2006)

Leaves are 1-5 cm (3/8-2") long x 1-5 mm (1/32-1/8") wide. (Weatherbee, 2006)

It is used as an emetic (vomit inducer), as an infusion for earaches and sores, and to counteract love medicines. (Weatherbee, 2006) Infusion of smashed plants were used as drops for abscesses and for earaches by Native Americans. (UM, 2009)

Lobelia kalmii L. Sp. PI. 930. 1753
Rapunlium Kalmii PresI, Prodr. Mon. Lob. 23. 1836.
Lobelia falcata Raf. New Fl. 2: 18. 1837. (Type from the Great Lakes region.)
Dorlmannia Kalmii Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 380. 1891.
Lobelia Kalmii var. strictifiora Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Hot. Gard. 1: 378. 1900. (Scribner 130, isotypc,
Acad. Phila.!) lobelia strictifiora Lunell, Bull. Leeds Herb. 2: 8. 1908. Pelromarula strictifiora Nieuwl. & Lunell, Am. Midi. Nat. S: 13. 1917. Lobelia Kalmii var. capillaris Farwell, Am. Midi. Nat. 10: 217. 1927. Lobelia Kalmii var. Edithae F. E. Wimmer, Repcrt. Sp. Nov. 38: 85. 1935. (Farr 782, NY!)
Extremely variable in vegetative characters; stems tall, slender, 0.5-1.5 (3) mm. in diameter at base, nearly unbranched, 15-35 (60) cm. high, green, or reddish below, smooth or slightly pubescent near the base, varying to a diffusely branched form which is often stouter and shorter, and sometimes to a tufted form with stems 2-3 cm. high, forming a rosette-like mat; cauline leaves 4-15, smooth, thin, subentire or shallowly dentate, with callose teeth, their blades narrowly linear or lance-linear (in the unbranched form), 0.05-0.2 cm. wide by 0.7-4 cm. long, the leaves of the branched or coarser plant broader, larger, 0.08-0.8 cm. wide by 0.7-7 cm. long, oblanceolate or broader, even to narrow-ovate, usually obtuse, the lower sometimes narrowed into short petioles; basal leaves if present few, spatulate or obovate, obtuse, petiolate, somewhat pubescent, often purplish, about 0.5 cm. wide by 1.5 cm. long (maximum size 0.8 by 3.5 cm.); rootstock slender, sometimes elongate; inflorescence sometimes plainly secund, mostly half the length of the whole plant or less, bearing 1-15 flowers upon long slender roughened pedicels 8-18 mm. long in fruit; pedicels flcxuous or stiffly appressed, each with a pair of conspicuous sub-opposite bracteolcs near the middle; flower-bracts linear, smrx>th, about equaling the pedicel or longer fin the more luxuriant, branched plants); flower [1) 10-13 06) mm. long, including hypanthium; corolla blue, with a conspicuous white eye, or sometimes all white, glabrous, or the tube hairy within, the lower lip smooth, the tube 2.5-3.5 mm. long, entire except for the dorsal fis,surc, the lobes of the lower lip ovate, apiculatc, equaling or exceeding the tube, the two upper lobes lanceolate, curved upward; filamcnt-tubc 2. .5-3. 5 mm. long, glabrou.s, the filaments connate more than half their length; anther-lube 1.6-1,8 (2.0) mm. long, blui.sh-gray, the two smaller anthers tufted, the three larger smooth or pubescent on the backs; hypanthium in anthcsis conic or campanulatc, smooth or with brownish matted hairs, becoming long-oval, oblong, or subglobose in fruit, varying with age on the same plant (usually rounder when young); capsule more than three-fourths inferior, 3-6 mm. in diameter, 4-9 mm. long; calyx-lobes lanceolate or deltoid, acute at tip, entire, glabrous, 1.5-5 mm. long (averaging 2.5-3.5 mm.); auricles none; seeds long-fusiform, acute at both ends, 0.6-0.8 mm. long.
TvPE locality: Canada, Kalm (herb. Linn., photo!).
Distribution: Newfoundland to Hudson Bay and Great Slave Lake, south to southeastern Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes region, Minnesota to Montana and British Columbia; Colorado?

Lobelia kalmii is a species of flowering plant with a distribution primarily across Canada and the northern United States in temperate and boreal regions. It was formerly known as Lobelia strictiflora (Rydb.) It is commonly known as Kalm's lobelia, Ontario lobelia and Brook lobelia.