Penstemon brevisepalus
Penstemon brevisepalus, commonly known as short-sepaled beardtongue, is an herbaceous plant in the plantain family. It is a perennial that produces pale lavender flowers in late spring.
It is native to the eastern United States, where it is restricted to the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Its natural habitat is acidic woodlands, prairies, and rock outcrops.
Description
Penstemon brevisepalus has stems that grow outwards a short distance and then curve upwards or that grow straight upwards to heights between. They may be either covered in backwards facing hairs that are glandular or glandular and villous, covered in long hairs. They are never hairless. Plants have both cauline and basal leaves, ones that attach to the stems and ones that grow directly from the base of the plant. Though sometimes the basal leaves will have faded by the time the plant flowers. They are covered in sparse to dense hairs on their undersides while only being sparsely hairy to hairless on their upper sides. The basal leaves and lowest ones on the stems are long and wide. Their shape is ovate to lanceolate or oblanceolate with a tapering base.Penstemon brevisepalus has an inflorescence that is tall with three to eight groups of flowers. These flowers are funnel shaped and long. They are pale lavender to purple in color with dark reddish purple nectar guides and are produced in May or June.