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Colorado beardtongue

Penstemon auriberbis

Colorado beardtongue
Photo: Anders Hastings https://www.inaturalist.org/people/andershastings, CC BY 4.0
Family
Plantaginaceae (Plantain family)
Grows as
Perennial
Native range
Colorado to New Mexico
Climate
temperate

About

Penstemon auriberbis, commonly known as the Colorado penstemon or Colorado beardtongue, is a species of Penstemon that grows in the shortgrass prairies of southern Colorado and in a few places in northern New Mexico. Although specimens were collected on the 1820 expedition by Stephen H. Long through the area, they were not scientifically described as a separate species until 1920.

How to grow it

The Colorado penstemon has a reputation for being fussy in cultivation, theorized to be due to having precise soil texture and pH requirements, though they are also well regarded for their handsome blooms. In the average European climate, it is most successfully grown in a hothouse to protect it from excessive moisture.

Where it grows

They grow on the plains of eastern Colorado and northern New Mexico in dry, sandy, sandy-loam, or gravely soils. Penstemon auriberbis grows in shortgrass prairie and in sagebrush shrublands from 1200 to 2500 meters in elevation.

Other Penstemon plants

Firleaf beardtongue · Stemless beardtongue · Sharpleaf penstemon · Los Alamos beardtongue · Alberta beardtongue · White penstemon · White River Beardtongue · Whitemargin beardtongue · Gilia beardtongue · Penstemon angelicus · Siskiyou beardtongue · Broadbeard beardtongue

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Penstemon auriberbis 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.

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