Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Perennial herb, 30-100 cm tall, from a stout woody short-branched caudex; stems 1-3 per plant, erect or ascending, glabrous, usually slightly glaucous.
Leaves: Opposite along the stems and also in a basal rosette; basal and lower stem leaves on petioles; upper leaves sessile; blades spatulate to broadly lanceolate, 3-8 cm long and 1-3 cm wide; upper stem leaves are smaller and lanceolate to linear.
Flowers: Red and showy, arranged in secund (one-sided) panicles, 10-70 cm long, at the tops of the branches; sepals 5 per flower, ovate to lanceolate; corolla 3 cm long, tubular-funnelform and strongly 2-lipped, with the 3 lower lobes strongly reflexed (pointed backward) and the upper 2 lobes projecting (not curved inward or outward); the color ranging from red to orangish-red, crimson or scarlet, with red-purple nectar guide lines inside the corolla tube.
Fruits: Capsules 10-14 mm long and 6-8 mm wide; splitting open longitudinally to release several brown seeds, 2 mm long.
Ecology: Found in rocky to sandy soil, in pinyon-juniper woodlands and pine-oak, spruce-fir, and birch-maple forests, from 4,000-10,000 ft (1219-3048 m); flowers June-October.
Notes: This is an incredibly common red-flowered Penstemon of the middle and upper elevations in the Southwest. FNA (Freeman in prep) recognizes 3 subspecies. Var. trichander is found in the four-corners region and has hairy anther sacs. Var. barbatus is found mostly below the Mogollon Rim in Arizona but also in s CA, sw TX, and sc UT, and has yellow hairs inside the corolla and glabrous anther sacs. Var. torreyi is found above the Mogollon Rim in Arizona and throughout the southern Rocky Mountains, and has sparse white hairs or no hairs inside the corolla, and glabrous anther sacs.
Ethnobotany: Taken for menstrual pain, stomachaches, coughs, to aid childbirth, and as a diuretic; also applied to burns; used ceremonially and as decoration.
Etymology: Penstemon comes from the Latin paene, nearly or almost, and Greek stemon, thread, alluding to the single sterile stamen within each flower; barbatus means bearded, alluding to the hairs inside the throat of the corolla in var. barbatus.
Synonyms: None
Editor: SBuckley 2010, AHazelton 2017
