Wenatchee Chapter, Washington Native Plant Society Jan. 21, 2010 Presented by botanist Julie Sanderson for a Wenatchee, WA audience Identifying Local Penstemons

-Penstemon is a genus in the Scrophulariaceae family, of the snapdragon family

-Lots of Penstemons in the Northwest!! -Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Volume 4 lists 52 species -Flora of the Pacific Northwest, our local field guide, has nine page long key to Penstemons

What to do with too much of a good thing? -break it down into local common species -Penstemons “around here” Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas, Okanogan counties in part -from shrub steppe to east side forests and up to the crest of the Cascades

Here is a very simplified key of sorts using easy to see characters:

1. Flowers white or yellow Penstemon confertus – pale yellow, smooth leaf margins; moist open to wooded habitat Penstemon deustus – white to cream, toothed leaf margin; hot dry rocky habitat

1. Flowers purple/blue/lavender/magenta

2. In the Mountains Penstemon fruticosus – shrublike woody stems, wooly anthers; road cuts, rocky outcrops in forested areas Penstemon procerus – herbaceous stems, small flowers, smooth anthers: sub- alpine Penstemon davidsonii – large flowers with wooly anthers, short stems, small leaves

2. In the shrub steppe 3. Small flowers (10-15mm) Penstemon gairdneri – leaves narrow, linear, smooth; on lithosols Penstemon pruinosus – leaves broad, ovate, toothed; dry rocky slopes and up into eastside pine forest openings

3. Big flowers (20-40mm) Penstemon speciosus – Big, Beautiful, Blue; deep soil habitat Penstemon richarsonii – magenta flowers, deeply dissected leaves; rocky places Penstemon glandulosus – lavender-purple, large, very sticky plant throughout, smooth ‘tongue’ Penstemon eriantherus- lavender-purple, smaller plant sticky inflorescence only, hairy ‘tongue’