Giant lobelia

Giant lobelia and Senecio plants in Mt Kenya.

Giant lobelia is a common name for several plants in the genus Lobelia; many of these species are restricted to high altitude, alpine ecosystems. In East African highlands as many as 20 species were listed in 1934 (Bruce). A selection of species names is below.

  • Lobelia aberdarica
  • Lobelia bambuseti
  • Lobelia bequaertii (Rwenzori Mountains, East Africa)
  • Lobelia deckenii
  • Lobelia fenniae East Africa
  • Lobelia giberroa[1]
  • Lobelia gregoriana (syn. L. deckenii subsp. keniensis, L. keniensis)
  • Lobelia lanuriensis East Africa
  • Lobelia morogoroensis[2]
  • Lobelia rhynchopetalum
  • Lobelia stuhlmannii
  • Lobelia telekii
  • Lobelia wollastonii

The giant lobelia span Africa, Hawaii, South America, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Phylogenetic analysis strongly supports that this is a monophyletic group. [3], [4]

References

  1. ^ Leakey, L. S. B. (1977). The Southern Kikuyu before 1903, v. III, pp. 1324–5. London and New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-439903-7
  2. ^ Knox, Eric Boyd (1993). Evolution of the Giant Senecios and Giant Lobelias in Eastern Africa. University of Michigan. p. 42. (http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/103434)
  3. ^ Antonelli, Alexandre (2007). "Higher level phylogeny and evolutionary trends in Campanulaceae subfam. Lobelioideae: Molecular signal overshadows morphology". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 46 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.06.015. PMID 18042405.
  4. ^ Antonelli, A. Have giant lobelias evolved several times independently? Life form shifts and historical biogeography of the cosmopolitan and highly diverse subfamily Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae) . BMC Biol 7, 82 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-7-82.

E. A. Bruce. “The Giant Lobelias of East Africa.” Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), vol. 1934, no. 2, 1934, pp. 61–88. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4118226. Accessed 14 June 2024.

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Index of plants with the same common name
This page is an index of articles on plant species (or higher taxonomic groups) with the same common name (vernacular name).
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