WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This 1–3-foot tall and wide, rounded sub-shrub with numerous stems and branches responds to spring and summer monsoon rains with a burst of white and pink flowers that cover the branch tips. Note the delicate tubular flowers with 5 white, rounded petal-like lobes and a hairy, rose-pink throat.

FLOWER: May–October (triggered by rain). Clusters have 1–2 tubular flowers 5/8–1-inch long (16–25 mm) with short, white hairs surrounding a rosy throat; 2 upper lobes fold back toward the pinkish flower tube, 3 lower lobes extend forward and the sterile stamen (staminode) doesn’t protrude or form a hairy beard in the throat.

LEAVES: Opposite, linear, narrow leaves, 1/4–1 1/8-inch long (6–30 mm), with edges usually rolled in. The slender stems are hairless and die to the ground in hard winters.

HABITAT: Deep sand, sandy-gravelly soils, roadsides; desert grasslands and scrub, foothills, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,400–7,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, KS, NV, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The bushy shape, small, white and pink, tubular flowers with 5 lobes, and loose-sand habitat distinguish this species. The other shrubby Penstemon in NM, Thurber’s Penstemon, P. thurberi, in so. NM desert grasslands, has 1/4–1/2–inch (8–14 mm) long flowers with spreading, pink to reddish-purple petals and a dark throat with guide lines.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide except west and north border counties in low- to Mid-elevation, sandy, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Guadalupe, Grant, Harding, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Mora, Otero, Quay, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Rosevelt, Torrance, Union, Valencia.