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Penstemon ambiguus
Also called Bush Penstemon, Gilia Penstemon
Penstemon ambiguus, commonly known as the sand penstemon, pink plains penstemon, or gilia penstemon is a species of Penstemon that grows in the shortgrass prairies and deserts of the western United States and northern Mexico. This bush-like penstemon grows in sandy, loose, and creosote soils and is particularly known for the spectacular flowering show it produces, sometime seasons turning whole hillsides bright pink–white.
Because of the showy nature of its upwards facing blossoms and long-lived nature, many gardeners regard bush penstemons as one of the best penstemons to grow in gardens.
In hot, dry environments with well draining soil bush penstemon are recommended, but are difficult to grow in other conditions. In areas warmer than -4 °C (USDA hardiness zone 9 and above) the plants will largely stay green and may bloom all winter. Plants grow larger and more robustly in sandy soils and substantially smaller in heavier soils. In colder areas, bush penstemons often die back nearly to ground level, but they are hardy to about -23 °C to -17 °C (USDA hardiness zone 6). Unlike the seeds of many colder climate penstemons, the bush penstemon has seeds that do not exhibit any significant decrease in germination when directly planted at 21 °C (70 °F). They also have no change in germination by being held at 4.5 °C (40.1 °F) for three months.
Penstemon ambiguus var. ambiguus grows in dunes, sandy areas of the plains, and sandsage shrublands. It is recorded by POWO and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS) as growing from eastern Colorado and western Kansas south to the Oklahoma panhandle, in two counties of New Mexico, and Texas. Though POWO additionally reports it growing in Nebraska. In southeastern Colorado, they are very often found in sandy washes and ephemeral streams draining the Palmer Divide.
Firleaf beardtongue · Stemless beardtongue · Sharpleaf penstemon · Los Alamos beardtongue · Alberta beardtongue · White penstemon · White River Beardtongue · Whitemargin beardtongue · Penstemon angelicus · Siskiyou beardtongue · Broadbeard beardtongue · Sand penstemon
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Penstemon ambiguus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
