lobelia
UK /ləʊˈbiː.liə/ · US /loʊˈbi.liə/ noun
Forms lobelias
- noun A member of the genus Lobelia, flowering plants in the Lobelioideae subfamily of family Campanulaceae, containing many species, some of which are garden plants.
Etymology
Internationalism. Learned borrowing from translingual Lobelia.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A genus of plants, including a great number of species. Lobelia inflata, or Indian tobacco, is an annual plant of North America, whose leaves contain a poisonous white viscid juice, of an acrid taste. It has often been used in medicine as an emetic, expectorant, etc. L. cardinalis is the cardinal flower, remarkable for the deep and vivid red color of its flowers.
Etymology [NL. So called from Lobel, botanist to King James I.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “lobelia”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details