Penstemon

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Scrophulariaceae

• Scientific Name

  Penstemon

• Description

  Genus Description - Cal herbaceous, deeply 5-parted; cor tubular or trumpet-shaped, ± distinctly bilabiate, the tube much longer than the lobes; fertile stamens 4, about as long as the tube, the pollen-sacs divaricate; sterile stamen about as long as the fertile ones, usually yellow-bearded toward the tip; style elongate; stigma capitate; fr septicidal; ours (biennial or) perennial herbs, the erect stems arising from a rosette of petioled basal lvs, the cauline lvs oblong to lanceolate or ovate, sessile and often clasping, the upper progressively reduced; fls white to blue-violet or red-violet (red in some extralimital spp.), in terminal paniculiform or racemiform infls. Our spp. all with highly variable lvs, much alike from sp. to sp. 280, mainly N. Amer.

• Common Names

  beard-tongue