This week: A Great Many Uses for Great Blue Lobelia
Hello!
Hold onto your hat—we’re discussing a plant with many uses by wishful thinkers: Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica).
Sprouting from the same family tree as Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), this blueish-purple variation is native to the eastern and central United States and blooms from late summer to early fall. Its spires of flowers reach three feet tall. Like Cardinal Flowers, Blue Lobelia attracts hummingbirds, bees, and other pollinators and thrives in moist soils in full sun to part shade.
Traditional Uses of Great Blue Lobelia
You may have noticed something familiar in its scientific name. If “siphilitica” brings to mind a venereal disease, that’s because European settlers thought it could cure syphilis and named it after the malady. It was ineffective; they’d have to wait until penicillin came along in the 20th century.
Meanwhile, the Meskwaki, a native people who lived around the Great Lakes, had romance on the brain. They ground the roots of Great Blue Lobelia and put it in the food of a couple on the verge of a breakup so that it would end their disagreement and rekindle their love. Similarly, the Iroquois used it to treat the lovelorn. Other Native American peoples also used Great Blue Lobelia to treat many spiritual and health complaints.
Today, scientists are still exploring therapeutic uses for Great Blue Lobelia. For example, the plant contains an alkaloid called Lobeline that is used as an (unproven) smoking cessation aid, and there is hope that it can also be used to curtail other substance addictions.
What we know for sure about this plant, though, is that its flowering form benefits insects, hummingbirds, and people. So, add it to your garden and enjoy it!
Elsewhere:
How do we increase the amount of native plants in densely built urban areas? Turn the walls of buildings into meadows. Learn how a facade engineer is experimenting with vertical meadows in the UK in this video from PBS’s Nature.
Have a great week,
Julie