Species Identification

Interested in the identification of penstemons? Please select a species then click on submit:

Attribute	The current selection is Penstemon_ambiguus
Classification	Penstemon Penstemon Ambigui
General	Bush or Gilia Penstemon. Blooms: late May to June.
Anther	0.6-0.8 mm, spreading, opening the full length to open flat, black, smooth.
Staminode	Smooth, red, included; fertile stamens included, the filaments white at tip and red at base.
Leaves	filiform (as in filigreed), 1-3 cm (3/8-1”) long & 0.5-1 mm wide, entire, inrolled on top, acute, longer on the main stem than on the flowering branches.
Stems	Diffusely branched shrub 3-5 dm (12-20”) tall and about as broad, stems woody well above the base, bare-looking with long internodes, green, herbage smooth to puberulent (downy).
Inflorescense	Thyrse racemiform (separate equal-stalked flowers attached to the stem and equally arranged on stem) with 1-2-flowered cymes.
Corolla	(20-25mm (3/4-1”) long, lobes white on front, pale pink on back, tube rose-pink, tubular-salverform, narrow, curved in the middle, gradually widening at tip, throat rounded above, upper lobes more or les reflexed and lower ones projecting, throat is red-pubescent (red hairs).
Flower Color
Calyx	2.5-4 mm (to ¼”) long, segments ovate, acuminate or acute, smooth, the edges ragged.
Habitat	Sandy slopes and mesas, in creosote bush, blackbrush, Artemisia filifolia and juniper communities, 1000-1600m (3300-5300’).
Range	South NV (Charleston Mts.) across s UT n to San Rafael Swell, Emery Co., n AZ, e to s CO, KS, w OK, w TX and n Chihuahua, Mex. var. laevissimus (Keck) N. Holmgren, the smooth leaved western phase (NM and sw TX westward) var. ambiguus: Herbage slightly pubescent (hairy) below; e CO, e & c NM, W TX, nearby OK & KS.