Penstemon heterophyllus var. purdyi

Purdy's foothill penstemon

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Purdy's foothill penstemon is a California native perennial found in northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range foothills, northern Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and south-central coastal regions in grasslands, chaparral, and forest openings at elevations of 50 to 1,900 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces blue to purple flowers with distinctive tubular shapes. Growing with short-hairy stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms compact clumps in open habitats. Its leaves are narrowly lance-shaped, 2 to 7.5 millimeters wide, with minimal axillary leaf clusters. The plant's short, fine hairs give it a soft, delicate appearance characteristic of its foothill and grassland environments.

Habitat: Grassland, chaparral, forest openings

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 50-1900 m

Bioregions: NCoR, CaRF, n SN, ScV, SnFrB, SCoRI.

California counties: Colusa, Sonoma, Solano, Santa Clara, Butte, Lassen, Sutter, Lake, Tehama, Napa, Glenn, Mendocino, Contra Costa, Placer, Humboldt, Alameda, Sierra, San Benito, Mariposa, Stanislaus, Marin, Calaveras, Nevada, Merced, Trinity, Shasta, Yuba, Yolo, El Dorado

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.