Some Summer Penstemons

At the other end of the penstemon spectrum as far as abundance (not) and showiness (only upon closer inspection) was Small-flowered Penstemon (procerus), a species I thought I had first seen a year earlier in the Cascades but now wasn't so sure. This one was teeny.

I spotted it in a meadow in West Glacier growing among Yellow Penstemon (with which is hybridizes). Actually what I spotted were several small bursts of dark purple to blue atop small stems. The richly colorful bursts of color were the clusters of the small - to 3/8" of an inch long - flowers. What a treat!

But the treatiest treat, that metaphoric slice of teeth-rotting chocolate cake, grew on the east side of Glacier National Park, where the Rockies give way to small grass prairies. This one, a big, showy, striped, fuzzy-mouthed pink beauty of a flower was Fuzzytongue Penstemon (P. eriantherus), a species of dry soils. It was a breathtaking surprise, a kind feather in the cap of the many pesntemons I had discovered in Montana. Had they all been sweets, I would now be sporting dentures.

"Some Summer Penstemons" (c) 2006 Gregg M. Pasterick - All Rights Reserved.

All Photographs (c) Gregg M. Pasterick - All Rights Reserved.

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