Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Indian-tobacco
In a word, this native, perennial wildflower is hardy.
I find it flourishing in hard-pan, gravelly clay found on the shoulders of country roads and in other challenging environments.
These delicate blossoms are visible because the plants have struggled up through the dense weeds and grass at the edge of a fallow field.
A member of the Bellflower (Campanulaceae) family, the characteristic hardiness of Indian-tobacco is also found in some of its relatives
We have several Bellflower relatives in the Gallery.
One is the deceivingly delicate in appearance, though hardy, cousin, Small Bonny Bellflower, which in its blossom shape fits the family name, including a "clapper."
It was flourishing on a limestone outcrop right at the edge of a overlook parking lot off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sometimes we hardly have to leave our car to find a lily of the field!
Another
cousin is the
American Bellflower,
which in its blossom shape doesn't quite live up to the family name in
its appearance.
It has a clapper, but it doesn't have a bell to ring.)
We found it growing in a small colony adorning the edge of a rocky trail at Humpback Rocks on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Not all of Indian-tobacco's relatives require—or at least will succeed in—a xeric habitat.
Two other Campanulaceae in the Gallery, Great Blue Lobelia (right) and Cardinal Flower, are wetland wildflowers,
No dry limestone outcrop or impacted roadside shoulder for these cousins; damp, fertile loam is what they need.
The suffix of the botantic name, inflata, refers to the plump, inflated seedpods that follow the blossoms (See left views.)
Lobelia inflata's common name is believed to be derived from Native American use of its leaves as a substitute for chewing and smoking tobacco, perhaps for medicinal purposes.
The Cherokee, for example, used a dilute infusion made from the leaves to treat colds and infections.
Note: Botanists warn that toxins found in the leaves, seed pods, and root of Indian-tobacco are extremely dangerous if taken internally in any form, including smoking.
As with many of the lovely lilies from God's creation displayed in the Gallery, I recommend that we enjoy Indian-tobacco and the other Lobelia only as a visual treat!
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Go back to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.
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