Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Campanulaceae
Genus
Lobelia L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Lobelia physaloides A.Cunn. (1839)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Colensoa physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 157 (1853)
  • ≡ Pratia physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hemsl. (1886)
  • = Salvia koru R.Taylor bis, Te Ika a Maui 453 (1855)
 Description

Erect to spreading, branched herb or subshrub. Stems to c. 1 m tall, somewhat woody towards base. Petioles to 10 cm long. Lamina (5)–7–20–(22) × (3)–4–10–(13) cm, ovate or ovate-elliptic, occasionally elliptic, glabrous or puberulent on main veins, sometimes with scattered hairs elsewhere, coarsely and irregularly serrate-dentate, cuneate or attenuate at base, acute to shortly acuminate at apex. Infl. a terminal, few- to many-flowered raceme clothed in short hairs. Pedicels slender, 1.5–2.5 cm long; bracts often > 5 mm long, linear-subulate. Calyx lobes 5–8 mm long, narrow-triangular to linear-subulate. Corolla 3–5 cm long, usually pale to deep blue or violet, occasionally whitish, deeply lobed with lobes acute; lower lip 3-lobed, hairy; upper lip 2-lobed, the lobes c. 1.5–3.5 cm long and spreading. Fr. 10–15 mm diam., subglobose, blue or, less commonly, whitish.

[From: Webb et al. (1985) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4 as Pratia physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hemsl.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Antonelli, A. 2008: Higher level phylogeny and evolutionary trends in Campanulaceae subfam. Lobelioideae: Molecular signal overshadows morphology. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46: 1–8.
de Lange, P.J.; Cameron, E.K. 1999: The vascular flora of Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands, northern New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37: 433–468. [as Colensoa physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hook.f.]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [as Colensoa physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hook.f.] [Relic]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76. [as Colensoa physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hook.f.]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Nationally Vulnerable]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [as Colensoa physaloides (A.Cunn.) Hook.f.] [Declining]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Lammers, T.G. 2011: Revision of the infrageneric classification of Lobelia L. (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89(1): 37–62.
Taylor, R. 1855: Te Ika a Maui, or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants. Wertheim and Macintosh, London.