WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Densely leafy stems can be erect to ground hugging, mat-forming, prostrate and rooting, and reach 10-inches tall with narrow, pointed leaves. Note the blue to purplish, tubular flowers have a slightly expanded throat (not bell shaped), grow on one side of the stem, have a whitish throat with or without guidelines, and a beardtongue (staminode) with golden-hairs along its length. Foliage is hairy throughout with tiny erect hairs or hairs that curve backwards (use

FLOWER: May–August. Clusters grow along one side of the stem with blue to purple, glandular-hairy, slightly inflated, tubular flowers. The two lobes of the upper lip spread upward; the three lower lobes extend forward. The stamens are contained inside the whitish tube. Guidelines may be present.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades linear, narrow, sharp pointed, 3/8–1 3/8-inches long (10-35 mm) long; upper surfaces with fine hair (var. taoensis) or hairless (var. glabrescens).

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, mesas, meadows, disturbed areas; pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa-oak, Douglas fir-spruce forests.

ELEVATION: 6,300–9,900 feet

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Narrowleaf Penstemon, P. linarioides, has erect stems to 19-inches tall in clumps (usually not mat-forming) with  leaves crowded near the base, scattered on the upper flower stem, and flat-lying or scale-like hairs. The flower tube is inflated (bell-shaped), and gold hairs on the beardtongue form a tuft on the tip.

NM COUNTIES: Northern NM in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grants, Hidalgo, Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Taos.