Blue lobelia
Lobelia siphilitica L.
Family: Campanulaceae (bellflower)
Anna Fiedler, MSU Entomology
Great blue lobelia
- Bloom Period:
- Late,
- Growth Cycle:
- Perennial,
- Growth Habit:
- Forbs/Herbs,
- Insect Type Attracted:
- Natural Enemy,
- Pollinator,
- Light:
- Full,
- Partial,
- Region:
- Southern Lower Peninsula,
- Soil Moisture:
- Medium,
- Wet
- Height:
- 1-3ft
Natural enemies attracted
Moderately attractive: Orius insidiosus, Chalcidoidea, Cantharidae, Coccinellidae and Plagiognathus politus.
Mildly attractive: Salticidae, Thomisidae, Cynipoidea, Sphecidae, Braconidae, Nabidae and Empididae
Pollinators attracted
Highly attractive: bees including yellow-faced bees, sweat bees, small carpenter bees, and bumble bees.
Pests attracted
Highly attractive: lygus bugs.
Mildly attractive: weevils, leaf beetles, leafhoppers, aphids and thrips
Plant notes
Blue-to-purple flowers bloom in spikes up to 3 ft tall. Plants filled in well in second year of growth, and bloomed throughout August into early September. This species was the tenth most attractive to natural enemies in the late season, with three times as many natural enemies as the grass control.
Habitat
This plant likes full sun to partial sun, and average to very wet soils. It occurs naturally in wet areas such as ditches, wet meadows and thickets, fens, shores, riverbanks, swamps and floodplains.
Cultivation and management
Blue lobelia can be grown from seed (It flowers in the third year.) or plug material (flowers in the first or second year). This species self-seeds when in ideal locations.