WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

The 6–24-inch tall stems are covered with glandular hairs with flower clusters in separated whorls at nodes along the upper stem. Note the slender, tubular dark- to pale-blue hairy flowers  are drooping, and the staminode (beardtongue) is covered with yellow hairs.

FLOWERS: June–August. Whorled clusters of 2–4 flowers on short, slightly drooping stems; each flower a slender, slightly expanding tube 5/8–1 inch long (15–26 mm), the outside covered with glandular hairs; 2 lips, the upper with 2 rounded petal-like lobes arching upward, the lower lip has scattered white hairs and 3 lobes bending downward; the throat is white with red guidelines and 2 ridges, beardtongue or sterile stamen (staminode) densely covered with yellow hairs.

LEAVES: Basal rosette with numerous leaves, lance- to spoon-shaped, long stems (petioles), pointed or blunt tips, sometimes slightly folded. Stem leaves opposite, linear to lance-shaped, 1 1/8–4 3/4-inches long (3–12 cm), scattered on lower stem below flowers.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, open areas, meadows; pinyon-oak, ponderosa-Douglas fir, aspen, spruce-fir, subalpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 7,000–12,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 2 nearly identical blue species once lumped with White-throated Penstemon: Inflated Penstemon, P. inflatus, from the Manzano to Sangre de Cristo mts., has a slightly inflated flower tube, hairless lower lip, and a one-sided, open, branching array; White-faced Penstemon, P. pseudoparvus, rare in the Magdalena and San Mateo mts. of Socorro County, has a slightly inflated, flattened flower tube.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains of central, northern, and western NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Los Alamos, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.