Great Blue Lobelia Traditional Cache

The Great Blue Lobelias are at the entrance to the trail into the FLLT Pearman Preserve. This can be a P&G, but the parking is a bit tricky. Not in driveways, so be prepared to walk a bit.

Great Blue Lobelia

Lobelia siphilitica, the great blue lobelia or great lobelia, is a plant species within the Campanulaceae family. It is a herbaceous, perennial dicot native to eastern and central Canada and United States. Growing up to three feet tall, it lives in zones 4 to 9 in moist to wet soils. It produces a spike of zygomorphic flowers in the late summer.

It blooms from August to October. It is a short lived perennial (with each plant living for only a few years).

Although self-compatible, a flower is unable to offer pollen to itself and it must be pollinated by insects (primarily bees in the Bombus genus).

This is a wild flower that is much appreciated in gardens.

Similar to Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), except this short-lived perennial bears long-lasting bright blue flowers (instead of red) atop 2- to 3-foot-tall plants. Native to wet areas in the eastern U.S., requires part shade and consistent moisture for best performance.

Oh, and the name. The botanical species name, syphilitica, comes from the Native American belief that this plant was a cure for syphillis.

This is the blue-flowered species in the famous wild lobelia family. This one is a grand 3 to 5' plant that quickly forms attractive colonies in light woodland or other shady spots. (Allow the flowers to drop their seeds in fall, and you'll have a big group of plants in no time.) Unlike its cousin, the more showy red Cardinal Flower, which holds its flower stalks above the leaves, Great Blue Lobelia opens sky blue midsummer flowers in the axils of each upper leaf, and then continues blooming for weeks and weeks. It also sends out side shoots, resulting in striking blue bloom on a candelabra-like plant.

This clump-forming perennial has upright leafy stems. From late summer to mid-autumn, it bears dense spikes of light to bright blue tubular, two-lipped flowers with a more prominent lower lip.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "micro" pill bottle, the push hard to open and close kind. Please BYOP, so you can sign the log that's rolled up, held together with a rubber band and sealed in a zip lock plastic bag. Remember, if you put the rubber band on your finger, you're less apt to lose it. Of course, you'll put everything back together as you found it, or better. Thanks!