Study plants, DNA extraction and sequencing
Lobelia columnaris is a semelparous herb or shrub up to 1 m, with curved purple corollas organized on a terminal or multi-terminal panicle. The protandrous flowers are present in the dry season and live approximately ten days (Bartos et al. 2012). The flowers produce sugared nectar that attracts birds such as the Orange-tufted sunbird (Cinnyris bouvieri ) (Janecek et al. 2012; Riegert et al. 2011) and Hymenoptera insects. The flowers are considered bee-pollinated (Givnish et al. 2009). The fruit is a capsule with thousands of winged seeds (Mabberley 1975) dispersed by wind (Knox & Palmer 1998; Mabberley 1975).
Fieldwork was conducted in February and March of 2015 with permits from Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, and from the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, Republic of Cameroon. Locality and collection data on the samples ofL. columnaris used in this study are given in Table 1. Voucher specimens are deposited in the Philadelphia Herbarium (PH). Voucher duplicates were deposited in the National Herbarium of Cameroon (YA) and Flora of Guinea-Real Jardín Botánico Madrid (MA).
Table 1. Locality and collection data of Lobelia columnaris