Californian Lobelia
Downingia Pulchella, Torr. Lobelia Family
Stems.—Three to six inches high. Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; linear; obtuse; passing into flower-bracts above. Flowers.—Racemose; blue. Calyx-tube.—Very long and slender; adnate to the ovary; its limb of five slender divisions. Corolla.—With short tube and bilabiate border. The smaller lip of two narrow spreading or recurved divisions; the larger three-lobed; broader than long; nine or ten lines by five or six lines. All the lobes intense blue; the large centers mostly white. Stamens.—Five; united into a curved tube. Capsule.—Splitting at the sides. Hab.—Nearly throughout the State.
These little lobeliaceous plants are very common, especially upon the plains of the interior, and may be found growing in wet places, where they often make the ground blue. The showy, white-centered flowers are familiar along the roadsides upon the borders of puddles. The blossoms, which are really stemless, appear to have stems of considerable length, owing to the very long, slender ovary and calyx-tube. They are cultivated for ornament under the name of Clintonia pulchella.
We have one other species in the northern part of the State. It is a larger plant, sometimes a foot tall, with ovate to lanceolate leaves. This is D. elegans, Torr.