Larval hosts for many moths and butterflies including the following:

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

Dark Buckeye (Junonia nigrosuffusa)

Anicia checkerspot (Euphydryas anicia ssp. hermosa)

Arachne Checkerspot (Poladryas arachne)

Variable Checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona)

owlet moths (family Noctuidae)

geometrid moths (family Geometridae)

hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe)

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 superbus means superb.

Found in limestone, red clay, and sandstone or sandy soils, on roadsides or above streambeds, desert grasslands and riparian zones, from 3,000-6,000 ft. in central and southern Aarizona, southern New Mexico; south into northern Mexico.