WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

With erect, 1–2 1/2-foot tall stems and showy, pale-blue to dark-purple blooms, this widespread flower is common along trails, mountain meadows, and forest openings. Note the hairless stems, clasping stem leaves, and flowers hairy on the outside and lower lip with no hairy beardtongue.

FLOWERS: July–September. Widely separated, one-sided clusters with 2–5 dark-blue, violet, or pink-lavender flowers (occasionally light-blue to white), 3/4–1 1/8-inches (20–30 mm) long, inflated tube-shaped, glandular-hairy on the outside; upper lip extended; lower lip spreading to downward bending with 3 lobes with long, white hairs; interior whitish with dark guide lines. The throat has white stripes and the beardtongue staminode (sterile stamen) is smooth, white. Leaf-like bracts below the flower clusters are hairy.

LEAVES: Basal and opposite on stem. Basal leaves lance-shaped to elliptic or oval. Stem leaves hairless, lance-shaped to oval, 3/4–4-inches long (2–10 cm), 3/8–1 1/8-inches wide (10–30 mm), stemless (sessile) to clasping, narrow, tip pointed, margins entire or toothed.

HABITAT: Gravelly, sandy loam; mountain meadows, ponderosa,  spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,500–13,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 43 species of Penstemon in NM. Rocky Mountain Penstemon, P. strictus, in much the same range and habitat, has hairless flowers that bloom on one side of the stem.

NM COUNTIES: Common in NM mountains at mid- to high-elevations, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance.