Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Perennial herbs to 40 cm tall, pubescent, the pubescence giving a gray, ashy appearance to the leaves and stems.

Leaves: Opposite, linear-attenuate, all margins entire, thin, not crowded.

Flowers: Corolla tube cylindric with the upper lip 2-lobed, blue to purplish, 25-35 mm long, hairy on the upper side, 2 nectaries at the base of the upper stamens, inflorescence densely glandular pubescent, borne in racemes on erect, mostly 1-flowered peduncles, calyx lobes oblong or oblong-lanceolate.

Fruits: Fruit a capsule, dehiscing between the locules and/or septa.

Ecology: Found on gravelly slopes in open areas, from 3,500-5,500 ft (1067-1676 m); flowering April-June.

Distribution: s AZ, s NM, s TX; south to n MEX.

Notes: Distinctive with the thin and linear leaves along with the glabrous staminode and a corolla without conspicuous guidelines on the tongue.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Penstemon is from Greek pente, five and stemon, indicating the five stamens of the genus, while dasyphyllus means shaggy leaved.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011, FSCoburn 2015