''Lobelia scaevolifolia'' is a species of the plant
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Campanulaceae
The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants bel ...
. It is endemic to the island of
Saint Helena
Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory.
Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...
in the South Atlantic Ocean. It was at one time placed as the only species, ''Trimeris scaevolifolia'', in the genus ''Trimeris''.
[ Its common name is St. Helena lobelia.]
Description
''Lobelia scaevolifolia'' is a stout fleshy pale bright green, glabrous shrub, 1–2 m tall, branches lactiferous, shiny, succulent with conspicuous leaf scars. Leaves 4-12 x 1–4 cm, oblong-ovate to wedge and lance tip shaped, tapered but not sharply pointed, hairless smooth, glossy and rather succulent, somewhat clustered at tips of branches, exceeding the flowers. Leaf margin regularly toothed to finely serrate, although flower leaves may be entire. Inflorescence
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...
from the leaf axil 1-2-3 flowered. Flower stems 4–6 cm, erect bare. Sepals 4–7 mm, more or less linear, entire, blunt. Corolla 5-lobed, 10–22 mm x ca 12 mm, white with yellow markings, somewhat hairy inside the tube. Upper lobes 2, linear, pointed. Lower 3 lobes forming a 3-lobed lip, with lobes 5 mm long. Stamens
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...
with stalks minutely hairy. Ovary 6-8 mm long, with 2 compartments, obconic
In botany, an obconic is an inverted cone shape. The term is most frequently applied to certain fruit or hypanthium structures with the apical end attached to the stem; however, less frequently the usage may apply to the pistil structure. In the ca ...
10 ribbed, capsules obconic to club shaped, opening by 2 valves in upper part. Seeds smooth, small. It flowers usually in the winter and spring months, August to November. It is located on the central ridge above 700 m. There are patches near Cuckhold's Point, Mt Actaeon and also at High Peak and the Depot. The population fluctuates considerably as it regenerates best in disturbed open habitats. Among else it is found along path sides and also on the trunks of tree ferns
Tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree fern ...
. It is relatively short lived and disappears from overgrown places. Although the capsule resembles that of other ''Lobelia
''Lobelia'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae comprising 415 species, with a subcosmopolitan distribution primarily in tropical to warm temperate regions of the world, a few species extending into cooler temperate r ...
'' species, the branching and habit is otherwise unknown in that genus. In the past it was a constituent of thick, well-shaded forests. The old vernacular name 'milkwood' given to it by early settlers derives from the milky sap exuded from cut branches.
Taxonomy
The species was placed within ''Lobelia'' in a 2011 study.[Lammers TG. 2011. Revision of the infrageneric classification of ''Lobelia'' L. (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). ''Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden'' 98: 37–62.]
See also
*Flora of St Helena The flora of Saint Helena, an isolated island in the South Atlantic Ocean, is exceptional in its high level of endemism and the severe threats facing the survival of the flora. In phytogeography, it is in the phytochorion St. Helena and Ascension R ...
References
scaevolifolia
Endangered plants
Flora of Saint Helena
{{Campanulaceae-stub