LOBELIA FAMILY 



LOBELIACEAE 



CARDINAL FLOWER 



Lobelia cardinalis L. 



The members of the Lobelia family are widely distributed 

 over the earth. Some of them contain a milky juice that is very 

 poisonous. Quite a few are cultivated for the beauty of their 



flowers. 



Bees cannot pollinate the 

 Cardinal Flower, conse- 

 quently it is one of the few 

 native plants depending for 

 pollination upon h nmmin g- 

 birds, which alone can reach 

 the nectar at the base of the 

 long corolla tubes. 



This is one of our most 

 brilliant flowers of late sum- 

 mer and early fall. It grows 

 in low places, especially along 

 streams, throughout the state 

 as well as in all other states 

 east of the Mississippi, and 

 westward into Texas. 



The plant has a perennial 

 underground stem which, to- 

 gether with the brilliant 

 flowers, makes it very desirable in a wild-flower garden. The 

 stems are usually i feet tall or taller, and the flowers are 

 produced in a rather i-sided cluster at the top. Usually they 

 are intensely red but rare specimens of rose or even white occur. 

 The ovary is below the other parts of the flower with the 

 calyx tube grown fast to it. The tubular corolla is split down 

 the upper side. The style slowly pushes up through the 5 sta- 

 mens united in a tube around it and the stigma opens only 

 after their pollen has been shed, to insure cross-pollination. 

 The fruit that ripens in autumn consists of a 2-celled capsule 

 which opens at the top to expose innumerable seeds, undoubtedly 

 the smallest of any Illinois wild flower. 



And the red pennons of the cardinal flowers 

 Hang motionless upon their upright staves. 



Among the Hills — John Greenleaf VVhittier 



330 



