Penstemon bleaklyi

From O'Kane and Heil (2014): "Taxonomically, Penstemon bleaklyi clearly belongs to subg. Penstemon, but depending on which description or key is used, it is difficult to determine to which section the species belongs. According to the descriptions in Nold (1999) the species probably belongs to sect. Penstemon (subsect. Humiles), based especially on the presence of serrulate leaves. In the key of Crosswhite (1965) the species easily keys to series (subsect.) Harbouriani. Using the key provided by Holmgren (1984; revised 2008), however, the species easily keys to sect. Penstemon. It should be noted that Holmgren’s key does not include subsect. Harbouriani. Subsect. Harbouriani, according to Nold (1999), has entire leaves, whereas P. bleaklyi has many leaves serrulate. The polyphyly of subgenera Saccanthera, Habroanthus, and Penstemon, however, leaves in doubt the subgeneric classification of the species (Wolfe et al. 2006).

The species is named for David L. Bleakly, a New Mexico specialist of the genus Penstemon, who wrote the treatment of the genus for the Flora of the San Juan Basin Region (Bleakly 2013) as well as a key to the species of the genus for the state of New Mexico (Bleakly 1998), and with Heil, who recognized this species as unique."