Panamint Beardtongue

Penstemon floridus is a herbaceous plant that grows to between 50 and 120 centimeters (1.6 and 3.9 ft) tall when full grown. Its stems can either grow straight up or grow outward a short amount before curving to grow upwards. They are hairless and glaucous, covered in natural waxes giving them a somewhat gray or blue coloration. Plants have both basal and cauline leaves, ones that grow directly from the base of the plant and those that are attached to the stems. The leaves are thick and generally dentate, having large teeth along their edges. The basal leaves and the lowest ones on the stems have short petioles and range in length from 5 to 10 centimeters (2.0 to 3.9 in) and are usually 2 to 4.5 cm (0.79 to 1.77 in) wide, though on occasion they may be just 8 millimeters wide. They also come in a variety of shapes including obovate to ovate, oblanceolate, or lanceolate. On the stems there are six to nine pairs of leaves. The upper ones may have their bases directly attached to the main stem and may also clasp it. The hairy and glandular inflorescence is 30 to 80 cm (1.0 to 2.6 ft) at the end of each stem with nine to nineteen groups of flowers. The flowers all face one direction. The flowers are showy and measure 2.1 to 3.2 cm long with a wide throat that is narrower at the mouth, especially in var. floridus, resembling an inflated pink pufferfish. …

Penstemon floridus is limited to the deserts of Nevada and southern California. It grows with desert sagebrush and pinyon-juniper woodland communities, usually in the gravelly soil of arroyos and canyons.

Conservation. In 1998 the conservation organization NatureServe evaluated Penstemon floridus and rated it as vulnerable (G3).