Penstemon centranthifolius

Penstemon centranthifolius
Many long, narrow red flowers hanging at a downward angle from one side of their stem

Apparently Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Genus: Penstemon
Species:
P. centranthifolius
Binomial name
Penstemon centranthifolius
(Benth.) Benth.
Synonyms[2]
  • Chelone centranthifolia Benth.
  • Chelone cheilanthifolia Paxton

Penstemon centranthifolius is a species of penstemon known by the common name scarlet bugler. It is native to California and parts of Mexico, where it grows in many types of dry habitat from coast to desert, such as chaparral and oak woodland.

Description

Penstemon centranthifolius is a herbaceous plant that when mature will reach 30 to 120 centimeters in height.[3] Its stems are hairless and may be erect or ascending, growing straight upwards or growing out slightly and then curving to grow upwards.[4]

The leaves are cauline, attached to the stems rather than the base of the plant, and attached in five to eleven pairs on opposite sides of the stems.[4] They are thick with smooth edges and the ones midway up the stems the longest.[3] They range in size between 4 and 10 centimeters in length and 1 to 4 cm in width with ovate to lanceolate shape, egg shaped with a wider portion towards the base to resembling the head of a spear. Leaves may be attached directly to the stem or by a short petiole. The base of each leaf may be tapered or it may be auriculate-clasping, wrap partway around the stem with ear like projections.[4]

The top of the stem is occupied by a long inflorescence bearing narrow tubular flowers 2.5 to 3.3 centimeters long. The inflorescence is usually 15 to 60 cm of the stem, but may occasionally be as much as 100 cm in length.[4] The flowers are hairless with two lips that have projecting round to egg shaped lobes. The flowers are bright red to orange-red.[3] Like the rest of the flower the staminode is hairless and will extend out of the flower's opening, it is 13 to 14 millimeters long overall. Flowering takes place from February to as late as July.[4]

Taxonomy

Penstemon centranthifolius was scientifically described in a lecture delivered to the Horticultural Society of London by the botanist George Bentham 17 June 1834, but named Chelone centranthifolia.[5][2] The next year this initial name was published in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, but the same year Bentham published a different argument about how Chelone should be distinguished from Pentstemon in his book Scrophularinaea Indicae renaming the species as Penstemon centranthifolius.[6][2]

Names

In English it is known by the common name scarlet bugler.[4]

Hybrids

This species commonly hybridizes with showy penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis), a species with wide-mouthed purple-blue flowers, to produce a penstemon with pinkish-purple flowers which is intermediate in size and named Penstemon × parishii.[7]

Range and habitat

Penstemon centranthifolius is native to the US state of California and the Mexican state of Baja California.[8] It grows as far north as Glenn County, California.[9] They may be found in the California Coast Ranges, the Sacramento Valley, the San Joaquin Valley, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Mojave Desert, the Transverse Ranges, the San Jacinto Mountains, the South Coast, and the Channel Islands.[3] in Baja California it mostly grows below 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) in the Sierra de Juárez south to Sierra de San Borja.[10]

It grows in dry habitats such as open chaparral, California oak woodlands, Joshua tree woodlands, pinyon–juniper woodlands, pine forests, and with coastal sage scrub.[4] In Baja California they grow on alluvial fans near mountains called bajadas, in canyons, and granitic hillsides.[10]

Conservation

The conservation organization NatureServe evaluated Penstemon centranthifolius in 1986. At that time they rated it as apparently secure globally (G4).[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b NatureServe (1 November 2024). "Penstemon centranthifolius". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Penstemon centranthifolius (Benth.) Benth". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Wetherwax, Margriet; Holmgren, Noel H. (2012). "Penstemon centranthifolius". Jepson eFlora. University of California, Berkley. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Freeman, Craig C. (29 July 2020) [2019]. "Penstemon centranthifolius". Flora of North America. p. 151. ISBN 978-0190868512. OCLC 1101573420. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  5. ^ Bentham, George (1835). "Report on some of the more remarkable Hardy Ornamental Plants raised in the Horicultural Society's Garden from seeds received from Mr. David Douglas, in the years 1831, 1832, 1833". Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. ser.2, 1 LIX: 481. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  6. ^ Bentham, George (1835). Scrophularinaea Indicae : A synopsis of the East Indian Scrophularineae contained in the collections presented by the East India Company to the Linnean Society of London, and in those of Mr. Royle and others; with some general observations on the affinities and sub-divisions of the order. London: James Ridgway and Sons. p. 7. OCLC 7391940846. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  7. ^ Armstrong W. Penstemon Hybrids
  8. ^ Hassler, Michael (5 November 2024). "Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora. Version 24.11". World Plants. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  9. ^ NRCS (13 November 2024), "Penstemon centranthifolius", PLANTS Database, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
  10. ^ a b Wiggins, Ira L. (1980). Flora of Baja California. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 506. ISBN 978-0-8047-1016-9. OCLC 6284257.
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