Penstemons are in the Figwort Family, Scrophulariaceae. There are about 250 species and the majority of them, 99.9999%…okay I dunno, but there is only one other species somewhere in Eastern Asia… are found in North America and most of those are in the western United States. Lucky us and yay!
Oh, and here is a fun factoid: It was botanist David Mitchell in colonial Virginia who suggested the name Penstemon to a plant he was working with, but he didn’t explain the name. Other botanists thought Mitchell was referring to the five stamen of the flowers using the Greek pente for five and stamon for thread. “Dude you forgot the t.” But he didn’t, cause a couple hundred years later it was suggested that Mitchell used the Latin word paene for almost and coupled with stamon means…Ta-Da!…almost a stamen and refers to the one sterile stamen. Pretty cool.
The photos of Penstemon fendleri are mine and taken at the Mesquitey homestead near the banks of the Ol’ Guajolote.
