Cardenala Azul

Lobelia cliffortiana L. Sp. PI. 931. 1753
Rapuntium clifforlianum Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8. Rapuntium, no. 3. 1768.
Rapurttiiim cordifolium Moench, Meth. Suppl. 277. 1802. (Based on Lobelia cliffortiana L.)
Lobelia chenopodiifolia Wall.; G. Don, Gen. Hist. 3: 709. 1834. (Type from the East Indies?)
Rapuntium chenopodifolium Presi, Prodr. Mon. Lob. 31. 1836.
Lobelia filiformis Sieber; A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 7: 372, as syn. 1839.
Lobelia triangulata Wall.; A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 7: 372, as syn. 1839.
Lobelia incisa Wall.; Hook. f. & Thomson, Jour. Linn. Soc. 2: 29, as syn. 1857.
Dorlmannia cliffortiana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 380. 1891.
Lobelia bisserrala Sess6 & Moc. Fl. Mex. ed. 2. 198. 1894. (Madrid!)
Annual; stem erect or decumbent, simple or with several main branches which are usually strongly ascending, 1-5 mm. in diameter at base, 5-75 cm. high, green or more rarely purplish below, smooth or with scattered hairs, terete or somewhat angled; leaves cauline, few-20 (more in branched plants), membranous and spreading when dry, smooth or short-strigose-pubescent, especially on the upper side, near the margin, on the margins of the petiole and sometimes ou the veins beneath, the margin coarsely and irregularly serrate or crenate, the teeth sharp or obtuse and mucronate, the blades 1-4.5 cm. wide by 1.2-6 cm. long (averaging about 2.3 by 3.3 cm., and usually a little longer than wide), ovate, or the upper lanceolate or elliptic, the tip obtuse or rounded, or acute in the upper leaves, the base cuneate to truncate or subcordate, narrowed to a margined petiole 0.5-3 cm. long, the upper and lower leaves usually smaller than the middle ones; inflorescence few-40 cm. long, not secund, few-50-flowered, often corymbose when young, usually appearing pedunculate, with the lowest flower 3-9 cm. above the uppermost leaf; lower flowers often distant; pedicels slender, 6-23 mm. long in fruit (average 11-15 mm.), spreading-ascending at a 45° angle, often with the capsule incurved at maturity, smooth, each with a pair of bracteoles at the base; flower-bracts linearfiliform, 3-5 mm. long (the lowest often larger, up to 2 mm. wide by 10 mm. long), smooth or ciliate, entire; flower 4.5-7 mm. long, including hypauthium; corolla blue, purplish, white or sometimes reddish, glabrous without, the tube sparsely hairy within, about 2.5 mm. long, entire except for the dorsal fissure, which extends to a point less than 1 mm. from base, the lobes spreading, shorter than the tube; filament-tube 2.0-3.0 mm. long, about equaling the corolla-tube, smooth, the filaments coimate near apex; anther-tube 0.5-1.3 mm. long (usually about 1.0 mm.), bluish-gray, the two smaller anthers with a small white tuft at tip, the three larger sparsely bristly near tip, or glabrous; h)-panthium in anthesis conic, glabrous, becoming campanulate or broadly conic in fruit, 2.5-4 mm. broad; capsule 4-6 mm. long, ellipsoid, one-half to about two-thirds inferior; calyx-lobes linear-subulate, entire, 2-3.5 mm. long, smooth or ciliate at tip; seeds smooth, shining, ellipsoid, about 0.5 mm. long.
Type locality: "Habitat in Virginia. Canada."
DisTRiBOTiON : Native of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; occurs as a weed in Trinidad, where apparently introduced; introduced into the Old World tropics early in the 19th century.