Giant lobelia is a common name for several plants in the genus Lobelia; many of these species are restricted to high altitude, alpine ecosystems. In East African highlands as many as 20 species were listed in 1934 (Bruce). A selection of species names is below.

Giant lobelia and Senecio plants in Mt Kenya.

The giant lobelia span Africa, Hawaii, South America, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Phylogenetic analysis strongly supports that this is a monophyletic group. [3][4]

References

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  1. ^ Leakey, L. S. B. (1977). The Southern Kikuyu before 1903, v. III, pp. 1324–5. London and New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-439903-7
  2. ^ Knox, Eric Boyd (1993). Evolution of the Giant Senecios and Giant Lobelias in Eastern Africa. University of Michigan. p. 42. (http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/103434)
  3. ^ Antonelli, Alexandre (2007). "Higher level phylogeny and evolutionary trends in Campanulaceae subfam. Lobelioideae: Molecular signal overshadows morphology". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 46 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.06.015. PMID 18042405.
  4. ^ Antonelli, A. Have giant lobelias evolved several times independently? Life form shifts and historical biogeography of the cosmopolitan and highly diverse subfamily Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae) . BMC Biol 7, 82 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-7-82.

E. A. Bruce. “The Giant Lobelias of East Africa.” Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), vol. 1934, no. 2, 1934, pp. 61–88. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4118226. Accessed 14 June 2024.