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. Locations where given are from 1934 (Bruce) which also provides a key to these species.
- Lobelia aberdarica East Africa: Aberdare Mountains and Mt. Kenya, Kenya; Mt Elgon, Uganda/Kenya
- Lobelia bambuseti East Africa: Aberdare Mountains and Mt. Kenya, Kenya
- Lobelia bequaertii East Africa: Rwenzori Mountains
- Lobelia deckenii East Africa: Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
- Lobelia fenniae East Africa
- Lobelia giberroa[1] East Africa: Rwenzori Mountains, Eastern Sudan and Aberdare Mountains, Kenya
- Lobelia gregoriana (syn. L. deckenii subsp. keniensis, L. keniensis)
- Lobelia lanuriensis East Africa
- Lobelia morogoroensis[2]
- Lobelia rhynchopetalum Abysinnia/Ethiopia
- Lobelia stuhlmannii East Africa: Rwenzori Mountains
- Lobelia telekii East Africa: Mt Elgon, Uganda/Kenya
- Lobelia wollastonii East Africa: Rwenzori and Virunga
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] While many of the East African species have a basal rosette, representatives in Hawai'i, for example, exhibit a diversity of forms.
- ^ 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
- ^ 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)
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.