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Lobelia telekii is a giant monocarpic perennial from the high alpine zones of Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon and the Aberdare Range, flowering once after about 40 years of vegetative growth and then dying. It is a wild alpine species rather than a common garden plant, so its care needs are hard to apply directly outside the high mountains.
Lobelia telekii is a species of flowering plant in the family Campanulaceae, that is found only in the alpine zones of Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, and the Aberdare Mountains of East Africa. It occurs at higher altitudes on well-drained sloped hillsides. It is a semelparous species, growing vegetatively for about 40 years and puts all its reproductive effort into producing single large inflorescence up to 3 metres (10 ft) tall before dying. Inflorescences of L. telekii also possesses a large pith-volume for internal water storage and marcescent foliage which could provide insulation. It secretes a polysaccharide into this reservoir, which may be useful for its survival in the cold climate. The plant is named after the Austro-Hungarian explorer, Count Sámuel Teleki.
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Lobelia telekii is pollinated mainly by birds, especially the scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird (Nectarinia johnstoni) which visits the inflorescence for nectar. It often visits the male flowers at the apex which are produced first (protandrous) and have more sugar than the female flowers that appear later at the base of the inflorescence. The birds defend their favourite stands of plants from other individuals of their species. The plants are eaten by rock hyrax (Procavia capensis johnstoni) in the dry season. The plant is protected by a latex and few other animals eat the plant. The rosettes of leaves hold water in the centre into which polysaccharides are exuded by the plant which are thought to cause ice-nucleation, preventing the plant tissue itself from freezing. They also hold fluid inside the inflorescences. This material has inspired the design of protection mechanisms for solar panels and other structures from ice.
Aberdare Lobelia · Lobelia alsinoides · Southern lobelia · Apache lobelia · Trailing Lobelia · Lawn Lobelia · Pale lobelia · Lobelia archeri · Lobelia arnhemiaca · Boykin's lobelia · Shortleaf lobelia · Tall Lobelia
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lobelia telekii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
