Lobelia anceps

Angled lobelia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Campanulaceae
Genus:	Lobelia
Species:	L. anceps
Binomial name
Lobelia anceps L.f.

Lobelia anceps, commonly known as angled lobelia, is a small herbaceous plant in the family Campanulaceae it grows in several states of Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa. It is a small, perennial herb with blue to purple flowers.

Description

Lobelia anceps is a prostrate to ascending, glabrous, perennial herb typically growing to a height of 50 cm (20 in), occasionally branches rooting at nodes. The leaves are variable, angled or more or less winged, linear-elliptic, oblong to oval spoon-shaped, 10–85 mm (0.39–3.35 in) long, 1.5–20 mm (0.059–0.787 in) wide, toothed or smooth, and often red to purplish at the base and the petiole 0–20 mm (0.00–0.79 in) long. The blue, purple or occasionally white flowers are borne singly in leaf axils on a pedicel 2–12 mm (0.079–0.472 in) long. The corolla usually 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) 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, 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long and 1.5–3 mm (0.059–0.118 in) 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.