Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Penstemon humilis var. brevifolius

Penstemon humilis var. humilis
Photo is of parent taxon
Photo is of parent taxon

low beardtongue, lowly penstemon
Leaves

basal leaves glabrous, sometimes ± puberulent, especially along midvein and margins, (10–)15–67 × (2–)4–20 mm, cauline blade margins entire.

basal leaves puberulent or retrorsely hairy, (8–)15–105 × 2–13(–18) mm, cauline blade margins entire, rarely ± serrate distally.
Flowers

corolla 8–13 mm.

corolla (7–)12–19 mm.
2n

= 16.

Penstemon humilis var. brevifolius

Penstemon humilis var. humilis
Phenology Flowering May–Jul. Flowering May–Jul.
Habitat Sagebrush shrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, coniferous forests, alpine meadows. Open, rocky slopes, hillsides, sagebrush shrublands, pine-juniper woodlands, coniferous forests, alpine meadows.
Elevation 1700–3400 m. (5600–11200 ft.) 1000–3200 m. (3300–10500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
UT
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety brevifolius is known from the northern Wasatch Range. The variety has been documented in Box Elder, Cache, Juab, Morgan, Rich, Salt Lake, Sanpete, Sevier, Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Weber counties.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Welsh described var. desereticus based on material with relatively larger corollas (15–19 mm) and smaller basal leaves (8–25 × 2–6 mm) from mountain ranges in the western Bonneville Basin of Utah; E. C. Neese and N. D. Atwood (2003) considered the variety to be limited to Utah. Variety desereticus appears to be confluent with a form of the species in the Calcareous Mountains of eastern Nevada, which N. H. Holmgren (1984) discussed and later recognized as Penstemon decurvus (Holmgren 2017). Penstemon decurvus, described from eastern Lincoln County, Nevada, also is referable here. Plants from northeastern California, extreme southwestern Idaho, extreme northwestern Nevada, and eastern and central Oregon often have cinereous leaves and relatively longer stems, shorter calyx lobes, and, sometimes, more open inflorescences; these plants have been called P. cinereus. This element grades into other phases to the east and appears to be another form of highly variable var. humilis. Some specimens from eastern Idaho (Clark and Fremont counties) have glabrous leaves, possibly from genetic exchange with P. aridus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 209. FNA vol. 17, p. 209.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae > Penstemon > subg. Penstemon > sect. Penstemon > Penstemon humilis Plantaginaceae > Penstemon > subg. Penstemon > sect. Penstemon > Penstemon humilis
Sibling taxa
P. humilis var. humilis, P. humilis var. obtusifolius
P. humilis var. brevifolius, P. humilis var. obtusifolius
Synonyms P. humilis subsp. brevifolius P. cinereus, P. cinereus subsp. foliatus, P. decurvus, P. humilis var. desereticus
Name authority A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 267. (1878) — (as Pentstemon) unknown
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers