Meaning & use
lobelia
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablebiology
Any of a large group of plants with small, brightly colored flowers, often blue, grown in gardens or found wild.
Grammar: Countable when you mean one plant or species: a lobelia, two lobelias. Uncountable when you mean the plant material or the group in general: plant lobelia along the edge.
Patterns
- a lobelia
- grow lobelia
- lobelia flowers
We planted blue lobelia around the pond, and it has spread everywhere.
The garden center sells trailing lobelia for hanging baskets.
A single lobelia can produce dozens of tiny flowers in late summer.
noununcountablemedicalold-fashioned
A drug obtained from certain lobelia plants, formerly used to help people breathe more easily.
Grammar: No plural and no article in this medical sense: treated with lobelia.
Patterns
- treated with lobelia
- lobelia extract
In the nineteenth century, doctors sometimes gave lobelia to patients with asthma.
Modern medicine no longer recommends lobelia for breathing problems because it can be toxic.
Word forms
| plural | lobelias |
|---|
Common combinations
- blue lobelia
- Blue lobelia looks lovely next to white daisies.
- trailing lobelia
- Trailing lobelia spills over the sides of pots.
- lobelia extract
- Some herbal remedies contain lobelia extract.
- grow lobelia
- It is easy to grow lobelia from seed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cardinal flower
- A common name for one North American species of lobelia with bright red flowers; it is more specific than lobelia, which covers the whole group.
Word family
- lobelioid adjective
- Relating to or resembling lobelia plants, used in botanical descriptions.
Commonly confused: lobelia or labella?
lobelia vs labella
Labella is the plural of labellum, a part of an orchid flower, and sounds similar to lobelia but means something completely different.
Practice
Which sentence uses lobelia in the most natural way?
Choose one answer.
Lobelia is a plant, so it fits in a gardening context with 'bought' and 'hanging basket'. The other options treat it as a verb, an animal, or a language, which are not real uses.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lobelia”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.