半边莲组 ban bian lian zu

Basionym: Hypsela C. Presl, Prodr. Monogr. Lobel. 45. 1836; Pratia Gaudichaud-Beaupré.

Plants perennial or less often annual, 2-40 cm tall; a few species dioecious. Stems commonly prostrate, radicant, or caespitose, rarely decumbent or ascending, slender, herbaceous. Leaves commonly small, petiolate or rarely sessile; blade typically not much longer than wide, variously rounded at apex and base, margin coarsely toothed or shallowly lobed. Flowers typically solitary in axils of upper leaves. Corolla sub-bilabiate (unilabiate in Lobelia chinensis), blue, purple, magenta, pink, or white, 2-12(-15) mm; lobes typically monomorphic. Anthers with a single long bristle on apex of each ventral anther, often also bearded with tufts of shorter filiform hairs, very rarely all nude. Fruit a capsule or fleshy berry. Seeds ovoid to oblong, terete (rarely slightly compressed); testa reticulate.

Forty-three species: amphi-Pacific, largely in the S Hemisphere; two species in China.

Lower Taxa

• Lobelia chinensis Loureiro
• Lobelia nummularia Lamarck