This 8–18 inch tall and wide bushy plant has numerous erect stems from a woody base. Note the narrow leaves and stems tipped with spikes of small, pink to pale-purple, funnel-shaped flowers.

FLOWER: April–August. flowers grow in pairs on opposite sides of the stem, and each pair rotates 90 degrees along the stem. The narrow tube opens into 5 spreading, dark-pink to pale-purple lobes, 1/2 inch wide (13 mm); yellow hairs grow on the lower lobes at the opening of the throat. The narrow staminode is dark-colored, hairless, and inside the throat.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades narrow, 1/4–1 inch long (5–25 mm); margins entire, surfaces hairless, tip pointed. Blades tend to roll up channel-like.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils; slopes, flats, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 2,000–5,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, NM, NV.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The widespread Bush Penstemon, P. ambiguus, has a white flower with a reddish throat.

NM COUNTIES: In the southwest fourth of NM in low-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, Sierra, Socorro.