Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Strictly herbaceous perennials, herbage glabrate.

Leaves: Opposite, linear-attenuate, upper leaves sessile, clasping, lower leaves petioled, not crowded on the stems.

Flowers: Large and showy, rich violet-blue, corollas funnelform, the throats rounded ventrally and only lightly or not hairy, strongly bilabiate, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-cleft, calyx 5-lobed, the lobes broadly ovate, with broad erose-scarious margins, stamens 4, in pairs, staminode glabrous, anther sacs obviously spinose-dentate along the suture, borne in open panicles, these very lightly glandular-puberulent, the commonly 2 or 3 flowered peduncles divaricate.

Fruits: Septicidal capsule with 2 cells. Seeds small, angled, numerous.

Ecology: Found on light, dry soils, from 4,000-5,500 ft (1219-1676 m); flowering August-September.

Distribution: Arizona; Mexico.

Notes: Kearney and Peebles note that this species commonly occurs in the Patagonia and Huachuca (Cochise and Santa Cruz counties) in Arizona. Look for it in the southeastern portions of Arizona, and Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico. Look to the rich violet-blue color of the corollas, the puberulent herbage, and the broadly scarious-erose margins of the calyx lobes to help identify this species.

Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in this genus have uses.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher 2012

Etymology: Penstemon comes from the Latin penna, "feather," and seta, "a bristle," thus literally, "feather-bristled," because some species have plumose or feathery bristles, while stenophyllus means narrow-leaved.