Plant Name
Scientific Name: Penstemon pseudospectabilis
Common Names: Desert Penstemon, Arizona Penstemon, Rosy Desert Beardtongue
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Shrub, Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert (upper elevation), Upland, Mountain
Flower Color: Pink to lavender pink, Rosy red
Flowering Season: Spring
Height: To 39 inches (1 m) tall
Description: The flowers are clustered on tall, upright, leafy stems. The individual flowers are 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, tubular, and have 5 rounded lobes. The top side of the tubular corolla is flat, while the bottom side has a downward bulge. The leaves are opposite, green, leathery, triangular in shape, and have sharply toothed margins. The the upper leaves are joined together at the base around the stems, forming boat-like leaf pairs.
The similar Palmer's Penstemon (Penstemon palmeri) also has boat-like, joined stem leaves, but it has glaucous blue-green leaves and larger, paler pink, fragrant flowers.
Special Characteristics
Hummingbird Flower – The flowers attract hummingbirds.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Scrophulariales
Family: Scrophulariaceae – Figwort family
Genus: Penstemon Schmidel – beardtongue
Species: Penstemon pseudospectabilis M.E. Jones – desert penstemon
More About This Plant
Arizona County Distribution Map
Time to Plant Penstemon Seeds! – The Firefly Forest