Scientific name: Lobelia dortmanna L.
Common name: Water Lobelia
Description
Habit: A submerged, aquatic perennial, to 70 cm high.
Stems: Erect, hairless; flowering stem leafless, unbranched, rising about 20 cm above water surface.
Leaves: Forming a rosette; 3-7 cm long, linear, thick, blunt, hollow with a partition down the centre.
Flowers: Pale purple to lilac, drooping in a raceme; calyx forming a short tube with 5 teeth; corolla zygomorphic, with a long tube, 5-lobed, with 2 narrow upper lobes and 3 broader spreading lower lobes; stamens concealed within corolla tube, ovary inferior.
Fruits: A many seeded capsule.
Habitat: Lakes, frequent and locally abundant in Connemara/Galway, not recorded elsewhere in the region.
Distribution: Absent from limestone, frequent and locally abundant elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No