Bay Lobelia

Lobelia feayana A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 12: 60. 1876
''Lobelia microphylla Raf. Atl. Jour. 147. 1832. (Type from "Florida and Louisiana.") Dortmattnia Feayana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 972. 1891.
Stem weak, slender, decumbent or ascending, 5-30 cm. long, simple or diffusely branched, green, rarely purplish below, glabrous, sometimes trailing and rooting at nodes; cauline leaves 1-10, glabrous, lanceolate (or the upper lance-ovate), acute at tip, denticulate, usually about 2.5 mm. wide by 8 mm. long, the lower ones broad-ovate or orbicular, 8-13 mm. wide and long, with a definite petiole up to 2 cm. long, the blades entire or crenatetoothed; basal leaves similar to the lower cauline ones; rootstock slender, trailing; inflorescence 2-18 cm. long (often half the length of the entire plant), more or less secund, bearing 2-15 rather distant flowers upon smooth slender pedicels which are 4-7 ram. long in fruit, each with a pair of inconspicuous bracteoles near the base; flower-bracts small, inconspicuous, 1-3 mm. long, acute; flower 7-10 mm. long, including hypanthium; corolla purplish-blue, with a white eye, and two greenish tubercles at the base of the lower lip, smooth, or the tube hairy within, the tube 2.S-3.5 mm. long, entire except for the dorsal fissure, the lobes of the lower lip narrow-ovate, shorter than the tube, the two upper lobes lanceolate, curv'ed upward; filament-tube about 3.0 mm. long, deflexed, nearly glabrous, the filaments connate more than half their length; anther-tube 1.0-1.5 mm. long, bluish-gray, the two smaller anthers tufted at the tips, the three larger smooth or pubescent on the backs; h>-panthium in anthesis conic or short-campanulate, glabrous, becoming turbinate in fruit, usually acute at the base, averaging 2.5 mm. in diameter; capsule two-thirds inferior or more, 3-4.5 mm. long; calyx-lobes narrowly lanceolate, glabrous, entire, 2 mm. long; auricles none; seeds rough-reticulate, ovoid, 0.4-0.5 mm. long.
Typb locality: "Eastern and southern Florida" (Gray!). Distribution: Peninsular Florida, except in the extreme south portion.

Lobelia feayana, the bay lobelia, is a species of bellflower endemic to Florida. A perennial dicot in the Campanulaceae family, it grows in moist areas such as ditches and is often spotted along roadsides. When clustered, the flowers have been described as appearing as a purple haze. It is pollinated by bees and the colors of the five petaled flowers vary from "bluish to lavender to purplish-pink". It is sometimes mistaken for blue toadflax (Linaria canadensis) which can also grow in groupings.