Sonoran Beardtongue
Penstemon Stenophyllus

Family: Plantaginaceae

Perennial plant growing to about a foot and a half tall, about a foot wide. Fall blooming with purple to blue flowers.

Part sun, moderate water with good drainage, probably hardy to about 10°F. Cut back as necessary.

Many sources mistakenly translate the Latin name Penstemon as meaning “five stamens”, but this is incorrect. The “pen” in Penstemon doesn’t come from penta (five) but from the Latin paene meaning “nearly” or “almost”, while stemon is derived from Greek for “thread”. “Nearly a thread” is a reference to the staminode, which is almost a functional stamen. The species stenophyllus means narrow-leaved.

Photo by Patrick Alexander, SEINET
Penstemon stenophyllus on iNaturalist