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Royal Penstemon

Penstemon speciosus

Royal penstemon carries one of the most saturated blues in the Great Basin, a color that photographs badly and has to be seen in person. It holds the flowers in dense whorls up stout stems above thick blue-green basal leaves, on sagebrush flats and rocky slopes from about four thousand feet upward. Sharp drainage is not a preference but a requirement — it lives on decomposed granite and pumice and will not survive a winter in ground that stays wet. Bumblebees and hummingbirds both work it, and it is a larval host for checkerspot butterflies. Like most western penstemons it is short-lived, so let some seed ripen and fall. Do not amend the soil for it; the more the site is improved, the shorter its life.

Family

Plantaginaceae

Type

wildflower

Lifespan

perennial

Height

2.5–2.5 ft

Spacing

1–1.5 ft apart

Light

sun

Soil moisture

dry

Soil pH

acidic, neutral, alkaline

Bloom

May, June, July

Bloom colors

blue

Wildlife value

pollinators, hummingbirds, butterflies, larval host

Caterpillar hosts

~8 butterfly & moth species

Landscape uses

border

Native states

CA, ID, NV, OR, UT, WA