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Penstemon mensarum
Also called Grand Mesa Beardtongue
Penstemon mensarum, commonly called Grand Mesa penstemon, is a perennial plant in the veronica family. It has a very limited range in western Colorado, but is also grown in gardens.
Grand Mesa penstemons were being listed in books on rock gardening as early as 1937. It is fairly adaptable and is used in rock gardens, xeriscape plantings, and perennial borders. They will tolerate clay, loam, or sandy soils and require modest amounts of water to dry conditions. In garden conditions it is fairly long lived and long blooming. Though tolerant of cloudy and rainy weather, Grand Mesa penstemons require part-sun to full sun exposure.
If the flowering stems are cut back after blooming, but before energy is put into developing seeds, then the plant will produce more flowers in the next spring. Plants are propagated by seed or by stem cuttings using rooting hormones.
Grand Mesa penstemons are endemic to the state of Colorado in the western United States. There it is only certainly documented in three Western Slope counties: Mesa, Delta, and Gunnison. However, there is uncertain evidence for it also beinf found in Garfield, Montrose, and Pitkin counties. There are only nine occurrences that are documented as being in good or excellent health and another 30 that have not been recently documented or surveyed. Within their range they grow above 2,200 meters (7,200 ft) up to elevations of around 3,000 m (9,800 ft).
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 mensarum 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.
