Giant lobelia in Mount Kenya National Park, Kenya
(© Martin Zwick/Danita Delimont)
The giant lobelia (Lobelia telekii), endemic to the high mountains of East Africa, puts all its effort into growing a single bloom. This particular species of lobelia grows exclusively above the 12,000-foot elevation mark, shooting up as high as 10 feet, with a shaggy inflorescence that can give the lobelia the appearance of an escaped Muppet, or perhaps something from a Dr. Seuss book.
Lobelia telekii is named after Sámuel Teleki, a late 19th-century Hungarian explorer, who was the first European to venture into what is now northern Kenya. By all accounts, Sámuel Teleki did not look like a Muppet.
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