LOBELIACEAE

the lobelia family of the bellflower order (Campanulales), containing about 25 genera and more than 750 species of flowering plants, native to both hemispheres. Some are grown for their attractive, two-lipped flowers, including annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees. The family is included by some authorities in the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), from which it differs by its irregularly shaped flowers. Postlike and shaggy-tree forms are found on mountains in Africa. These include L. gibberoa, 9 m (30 feet) tall, in wetter forests 1,200 to 2,700 m in elevation; L. aberdarica, 2 m tall, occurring at elevations of 2,100 to 3,400 m and as high as 4,600 m; and L. telekii, in which a shaggy appearance results from hairy foliage, an adaptation to dry and cold weather. Trailing lobelia (L. erinus), native to southern Africa, is usually blue flowered and green foliaged, but pink, white and blue, and white flowered forms are known, and bronze-coloured foliage occurs as well. The little flowers are flylike in shape. Tall and shrubby, L. laxiflora, from Mexico and Central America, produces spikes of long-stalked, toothlike, orange and yellow flowers. It is widespread on the forest edges of mountain slopes. Some of the ornamental lobelias come from the genera Downingia, Hypsela, Centropogon, Isotoma, Monopsis, Palmerella, and Pratia. See also cardinal flower; Indian tobacco.