Penstemon patens
Lone pine beardtongue
Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Lone pine beardtongue is a California native perennial found in central Sierra Nevada and southern Sierra Nevada Mountains in sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland, and yellow-pine forest at elevations of 1,600 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces lavender, magenta, or violet flowers with a distinctive staminode minutely covered in orange to yellow hairs. Growing 15 to 40 centimeters tall with a glabrous and glaucous appearance, it develops thick stems and well-developed basal leaves. Its cauline leaves are lanceolate, 25 to 90 millimeters long and 5 to 20 millimeters wide, growing entire along the stem. The flower's corolla measures 13 to 20 millimeters long, with a calyx 3 to 7 millimeters in length featuring widely ovate lobes.
Habitat: Sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland, yellow-pine forest
Bloom period: May-Jun
Elevation: 1600-3000 m
Bioregions: c&s SNH, s SNE
California counties: Inyo, Mono, Sierra
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.