Penstemon Page: Really A Penstemaniac's Page

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Photo by Louise Parsons Penstemon rupicola Subgenus Dasanthera

Although in the wild this bright red-pink penstemon grows in rock crevices, it adapts well to container culture or to sand or scree beds. Photographed on Iron Mountain in Oregon's Western Cascades, this population has flowers with extra lobes. Note the flowers in the upper right corner. I wonder if this is an adaptive mechanism or just a quirk. Typical habitat is intermediate to basic volcanics, where it grows in the abundant rock joints typically found in the exhumed "bones" of the volcanos that make up the Western Cascades. Although hummingbirds are not likely to be considered the major pollinator, they do feed on it in association with adjacent food sources such as Castilleja miniata, C. hispida (Paintbrush) Arctostaphylos columbiana, A. nevadensis (manzanitas) a succession of currants such as Ribes viscossisimum and many other plants within their local range. In the broader area, I have also observed hummingbirds feeding on Penstemon serrulatus and P. cardwellii.

Louise Parsons, Corvallis, Oregon

page updated 12/30/03