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Penstemon penlandii
Also called Penland Beardtongue
Penstemon penlandii is a rare, federally endangered perennial herb from a small area of Middle Park, Colorado, where it grows in selenium-rich clay. It is grown only rarely, mainly by specialist collectors, so its care is best matched to dry, sunny, well-drained conditions typical of its native habitat.
Penstemon penlandii is a rare species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common names Penland penstemon and Penland beardtongue. It is endemic to Colorado, United States, where it is known only from a strip of land of approximately twelve square kilometers (4.6 sq mi) in central Grand County. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.
The first recorded observances of P. penlandii were in the 1980s during surveys for Osterhout milkvetch, another rare local endemic. The two plants are found only in Middle Park, a valley with seleniferous badlands that host a unique flora. The penstemon grows in clay that is rich in selenium, an element toxic to most other plants in high concentrations. In adjacent stretches of land that have a lower selenium content the penstemon population becomes thinner and it is replaced by sagebrush.
Penstemon penlandii is endemic to a single area in the Middle Park basin in Colorado. In 1992, the species's range was measured as all within a total area of 6 km2 (2.3 mi2) within Grand County. These populations of P. penlandii were concentrated along dirt roadsides approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) from the city of Kremmling. Occurrences have been observed on both privately owned land and land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. As of 2026, the range of P. penlandii is about 12 km2 (4.6 mi2) total across two occurrences.
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 penlandii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
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.
