Beard-Tongue or Bearded-Tongue – Penstemon barbatus and P. spp.

Common Name: Beard-Tongue or Bearded-Tongue

Botanical Name: Penstemon barbatus and P. spp., pen-STE-mon or PEN-ste-mon bar-BA-tus

Decorative Life: 3-8 days.

Flower Color: Pink, Red, White

• As a member of the Scrophulariaceae (figwort family), it has as common relatives Calceolaria, Veronica, Verbascum, Chelone, foxglove, snapdragon, and Angelonia.
• Native to Southwestern US including Utah to New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico.

• Stems to 3 plus feet, smooth at top and somewhat hairy at base.
• Leaves are opposite with the lower leaves having petioles and the top ones without or sessiled.
• Flowers showy on spikes, have 2 upper and 3 lower lobes with the fifth sterile stamen hairy (bearded) at base, giving rise to its common names, Bearded- or Beard-Tongue.

Believed to be in the mid to low 30s F but more research is needed.

• From the Greek “pente” meaning five and “stemon” for stamen, referring to the prominent fifth stamen that is sterile.
• Presently better known as a garden herbaceous perennial than as a cut flower.