Berlandier's Lobelia

Lobelia brachypoda A. DC; SmaU, Fl. SE. U. S. 1147. 1903
Lobelia cliffortiana var. brachypoda A. Gray, Syn. FI. N. Am. 2': 7. 1878. (Type from "S. W. Texas.")
Annual; stera erect, simple or with 1-20 ascending subordinate branches (the lower branches sometimes decimibcnt at base), rather coarse (up to 6 mm. in diameter at base), green, few-60 cm. high, entirely smooth and glabrous or with scattered hairs; cauline leaves few-20, spreading-ascending, thin in texture, entirely glabrous or ciliate near the margins and on the petiole, coarsely or finely and irregularly serrate or crcnate, the blades 1-2.5 cm. wide by 2.5-5 era. long, mostly 1.5-2.5 tiraesaslong as wide, broad-elliptic or ovate, obtuse or soraetimes short-acute at tip, narrowed at the cuneate base to a margined petiole which may be 2,5 cm. long, the upper leaves narrower, more acute, sessile or subpetiolatc; inflorescence few20 cm. long, not secund, few-30-flowercd (average less than 20); lower flowers sometimes distant, because of elongation of the axis; inflorescence sometimes pedunculate (2-8 cm.); jiedicels ascending, slender, 4-12 mm. long in fruit, glabrous or rarely bristly, each with a l;air of tiny bracteoles at base; longer pedicels, in fruit, sometimes incurved; flower-bracts linear, 4-9 ram. long, or the lowest lanceolate, leafy, up to 1.5 mm. wide by 18 mra. long, ■glabrous or ciliate, usually entire; flower 10-13 mra. long, including hypanthium; corolla blue, with a white eye, smooth, or the lower lip puljerulent at base within, the tube 3.5-5.0 mm. I'rtjg, entire except for the dorsal fissure, which extends to a point less than I mm. from the Ijase, thcloljcsof the lower lip oblong or obovate, up to 3.5 mm. wide by 7 mm. long, mucronalc, uiually slightly shorter than the tube, spreading, the two upper lobes linear, croci ; rilamcnt-tube 3 mm. long, glabrous, the filaments connate less than half their length; anthcr-(u')c (1.0) I.S1.7 mm. long, bluLsh-gray, the two smaller anthers while lulled at lip, the three larger cilialc on back; hypaathium in anthesis short-campanulate or obconic, glabrous, becoming canipanulate in fruit, 2.5-3.5 mm. across; capsule about half inferior, 4.5-6 mm. long; calyx-lobes linearsubulate, entire, 3-4.5 mm. long, mostly prickly-ciliate on margins; seeds ellipsoid, brown, smooth, shining, about 0.3 mm. long.
Type locality: "Texas and adjacent Me-xico."
Distribution: Central Texas to Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo l,e6n and Tamaulipas, at elevations of 1000 m. or less.