Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Glade Lobelia - Lobelia glandulosa   Walter
Members of Campanulaceae:
Members of Lobelia with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Campanulales » Family Campanulaceae
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AuthorWalter
DistributionOccurs over most of the southeastern half of the Coastal Plain, excluding the Sandhills region. Ranges west only to Harnett County, and north to Johnston, Wayne, and Beaufort counties. This represents the northern edge of the species' range. Note that essentially all of the Piedmont records on the RAB (1968) range map have now been assigned to L. georgiana.

This is a Southeastern species, ranging essentially in the Coastal Plain from southeastern NC and south to southern FL and west to MS.
AbundanceFairly common in the Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) zone from Craven and Carteret counties south to the SC line. Uncommon to infrequent farther inland.
HabitatThis Lobelia occurs in acidic wetlands, often or usually in association with pinelands. It occurs in pine savannas, wet pine flatwoods, seepages in pinelands, and margins of ponds and marshes.
PhenologyBlooms later than most others in the genus, from September to October, fruiting in the same period.
IdentificationThis is one of several wetland species of Lobelia that are quite similar, and thus you must take care in the identification. These species are fairly tall, growing as an erect herb to 2 feet tall, rarely to 3 feet tall, usually unbranched. They have numerous alternate stem leaves. In this species, each leaf is very narrow, essentially linear, 3-4 inches long but usually about 1/5-inch wide, with serrated margins. The top 3-5 inches of the stem is a raceme of widely scattered flowers, relatively few, and secund (on one side of the stem), each of which is violet-blue to medium blue. The flower is about 3/4-inch long, tubular and with two lips, the lower with three lobes and extending far beyond the two small upper lobes. L. glandulosa often occurs in the same area with several others in the Coastal Plain; this species has very narrow leaves, always under 1.5 cm (3/5-inch) wide. The common L. puberula has a densely pubescent stem, whereas L. glandulosa has a smooth stem. L. batsonii has slender leaves as well, but the large flower lip is smooth on the base and inside, whereas L. glandulosa has the large lip densely pubescent on the base and also within the tube. Also, L. batsonii has a smaller flower, only 17-23 mm long, versus 19-27 mm long in L. glandulosa. However, they should be separable mainly by range, as L. batsonii is a Sandhill species, mainly in seepages and other moisture on slopes of pinelands, as opposed to L. glandulosa being a plant of more easterly range and flatter pinelands. In summary, this is a very narrow-leaved species with toothed sepals. Also, Sorrie (2011) mentions that L. elongata can be separated from L. glandulosa and L. batsonii by "the denser raceme, the much wider leaves, the longer calyx lobes, and its habitat".
Taxonomic CommentsThis has always been a good species, but many references have had other entities included within it, such as L. georgiana. Also, L. batsonii is basically included within it by most authors.

Other Common Name(s)None
State RankS3? [S3S4]
Global RankG4G5
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