Penstemon barbatus
Scarlet Buglar
Family: Plantaginaceae
Perennial plant growing usually about 1-2’ tall and wide, and mostly evergreen, though plants need to be cut back occasionally. Scarlet flowers summer into fall, attracting hummingbirds. Flowers can reach up to 3 or more feet tall.
Full to part sun, moderate water with good drainage, hardy to -30°F. Cut back as needed.
Pollinated by hummingbirds and nectar seeking insects. 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)
Taken for menstrual pain, stomachaches, coughs, to aid childbirth, and as a diuretic; also applied to burns; used ceremonially and as decoration.
Penstemon barbatus on iNaturalist
Photo by Max Licher, SEINET
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 name barbatus means bearded, alluding to the hairs inside the throat of the corolla in var. barbatus.
Found in rocky to sandy soil, in pinyon-juniper woodlands and pine-oak, spruce-fir, and birch-maple forests, from 4,000-10,000 ft. widespread in the southwestern United States into Mexico. This is an incredibly common red-flowered Penstemon of the middle and upper elevations in the Southwest.
There are 3 varieties recognized:
-var. trichander is found in the four-corners region and has hairy anther sacs.
-var. barbatus is found mostly below the Mogollon Rim in Arizona but also in s CA, sw TX, and sc UT, and has yellow hairs inside the corolla and glabrous anther sacs.
-var. torreyi is found above the Mogollon Rim in Arizona and throughout the southern Rocky Mountains, and has sparse white hairs or no hairs inside the corolla, and glabrous anther sacs.
There are also horticultural selections of this species.