Lobelia anceps, commonly known as angled lobelia,
Description
Lobelia anceps is a prostrate to ascending, glabrous, perennial herb typically growing to a height of , occasionally branches rooting at nodes. The leaves are variable, angled or more or less winged, linear-elliptic, oblong to oval spoon-shaped, long, wide, toothed or smooth, and often red to purplish at the base and the petiole long. The blue, purple or occasionally white flowers are borne singly in leaf axils on a pedicel long. The corolla usually long, the two upper petals narrower than the three lower petals. Flowering occurs mostly in summer and autumn and the fruit is a conical shaped capsule covered in soft, upright hairs or smooth, long and in diameter.
Taxonomy and naming
Lobelia anceps was first formally described in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus and the description was published in
Supplementum Plantarum.
The specific epithet (
anceps) means "two-sided, double, flattened", referring to the leaves.
Distribution and habitat
Angled lobelia is found along the banks of pools, creeks and rivers along coastal areas in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. In Western Australia it grows between the Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia in sandy-peat-clay soils over
granite or limestone.
