About Penstemon gracilentus A.Gray
Penstemon gracilentus, commonly known as slender penstemon, is a long-lived perennial herbaceous plant. It grows 20 to 65 centimeters (8 to 26 inches) tall, and typically produces several stems that grow either straight upward, or grow outward before curving upward from a branched, woody caudex. Stems may be hairless or covered in stiff, backward-facing hairs, and are occasionally coated in natural waxes. Most of its leaves are cauline, meaning they attach to the plant's stems; basal leaves at the plant's base are absent or nearly absent. Leaves are arranged in opposite pairs along the stem, with each stem bearing 3 to 10 pairs, usually more than six. Lower leaves are oblanceolate to spatulate, which means they are shaped like a reversed spear head or a spoon, with the widest part of the leaf beyond the leaf midpoint. Upper leaves are narrowly lanceolate (shaped like a thin spear head) or linear like a tip of grass blade. Leaves measure 2 to 10.5 centimeters long, most commonly 4 to 8 centimeters, and range from 0.2 to 1.5 centimeters wide. Leaf edges are smooth, and leaf surfaces are hairless, but sometimes glaucous, meaning they are covered in a gray-blue natural waxy coating. The uppermost 3 to 28 centimeters of the stem forms an inflorescence, which holds between 3 and 9 groups of flowers. Each flower group contains a pair of cymes, which hold 2 to 7 flowers each on branched pedicels. Slender penstemon is native to three western U.S. states: Nevada, Oregon, and California. In California, it occurs in the northeast, in the high Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range and its foothills, the Modoc Plateau, and the Warner Mountains. In Nevada, it is only known from the far western edge of the state, in Douglas County, Carson City, and Washoe County. In eastern Oregon, it has been recorded in four widely separated counties: Jackson, Lake, Wasco, and Baker. It grows in association with sagebrush scrub, juniper woodlands, yellow-pine forests, and subalpine forests. In sagebrush habitats, it is often found growing in soils formed from lava flows or granite.
