Penstemon whippleanus

Whipple's Beardtongue is a perennial herb with tufted stems that are 2-6 dm tall and arising from a shallow, branched rootcrown. The basal leaves each have an entire-margined, elliptic blade that is up to 6 cm long and a petiole of nearly the same length. The opposite stem leaves are narrower and mostly lack petioles. Foliage is glabrous below but glandular-hairy above. The inflorescence consists of 2-7 clusters of short-stalked flowers in the axils of reduced upper leaves. The tubular corolla is flared and 2-lipped at the mouth, 18-28 mm long, and blue to lavendar or cream-colored with glandular hairs on the outside. The 5 narrowly lance-shaped calyx segments are 7-11 mm long and are green throughout and glandular-hairy. The 4 anthers are glabrous, and the sterile stamen is bearded only at the tip. The fruit is a capsule that is 6-9 mm long and sparsely glandular-hairy near the top.

There are many species of PENSTEMON in our area; a technical manual should be consulted for identification. The glandular inflorescence and fruit capsule separate this from all other species in our area, except for P. ERIANTHERUS, which has a sterile stamen that is hairy for much of its length. A hand lens will be required for identification.