Penstemon pseudospectabilis var. pseudospectabilis

Plant Information
Species: 
pseudospectabilis
Species Authority: 
M.E. Jones
Variety: 
pseudospectabilis
Subgenus: 
Penstemon
Section: 
Peltanthera
Subsection: 
Peltanthera
Habit:
 
robust herb
Habit Woodiness:
 
herb
Lifespan: 
long-lived
Plant Height - Min: 
6.00dm
Plant Height - Max: 
10.00dm
Habitat Description: 
Desert washes and canyons, Lower Sonoran Zone.
Distribution Range: 
Southeastern Mojave and Colorado Deserts of California, east to Arizona. Type locality: Chemehuevis Mountains, northwestern Arizona.
Soil Type: 
Sandy and rocky soils.
Elevation - Min: 
600.00m
Elevation - Max: 
2100.00m
Other Notes: 

A common and beautiful species, separable into western and eastern subspecies on the presence or absence of glands on the calyces and pedicels. In Mohave, Yuma, and western Pinal and Pima counties and in California is found subsp. typicus Keck, with the glands and with usually glaucous herbage. To the eastward grows the much more abundant, greener, and eglandular subsp. connatifolius (A. Nels.) Keck, type from the Apache trail, Gila or Maricopa County. A beautiful form, apparently a first-generation hybrid between subsp. connatifolius and P. Eatoni subsp. exsertus, collected near Superior was described as P. Crideri A. Nels. The staminode, although normally glabrous in this species, is sparsely bearded toward the apex in a specimen of subsp. typicus from the Kofa Mountains, Yuma County, and in one from Montezuma Well, Yavapai County.

First Bloom: 
March
Last Bloom: 
July
Chromosome Number: 

2n = 16

References: 

Abrams LR. 1874-1956. An Illustrated flora of the Pacific States: Washington, Oregon, and California. Stanford University: Stanford University Press.