The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Penstemon glaber
Also called Sawsepal Beardtongue
Penstemon glaber, commonly known as sawsepal penstemon, is a species in the Plantaginaceae family from western North America. It grows as far north as Montana and North Dakota and as far south as Chihuahua in northern Mexico.
Sawsepal penstemon is among the more popular penstemon species grown in gardens both inside and beyond its native range. Both the alpinus and brandegeei varieties are specifically noted for being long-lived. When found at high elevations plants are quite small and dainty and seeds from these populations at or above timberline will produce small plants, though not so small as in the wild. It tends to be larger in gardens, with brandegeei, being particularly noted for having a larger basket like form with many stems in contrast to the one to three stems on wild plants. Over watering or high rainfall can lead to sprawling plants with pale flower color. Plants are hardy down to −20 °C (−4 °F) and lower temperatures when kept drier.
Sawsepal penstemon grows across many North American states from northern Mexico to the northern United States along the Rocky Mountains. In Mexico it only grows in the state of Chihuahua. In New Mexico it grows in northern parts of the state from Union County to McKinley County. In Colorado it primarily grows east of the Continental Divide in the mountains and the counties at the foot of the mountains. In Wyoming it grows throughout all but the southwestern corner of the state, but is only found in the western panhandle of Nebraska. It is primarily found in western South Dakota and only in a few scattered counties in North Dakota and Montana.
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 glaber 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.
