Bush Penstemon

Penstemon fruticosus is a semi-evergreen shrub or subshrub, a plant that is partly woody especially towards its base, that usually takes the form of a spreading tuft. Its stems may be 13 to 40 centimeters (5 to 16 in) tall. Usually several stems will grow directly upwards or outward a short distance before curving to grow upwards from a branched, woody caudex at the base of the plant. The stems may be glabrous or puberulent, hairless or covered in minute, stiff hairs. Each stem will have two to six pairs of leaves attached on opposite sides with those towards the end clearly smaller than ones towards the base. The leaves are normally smooth and glossy and those on stems without flowers are usually better developed than ones on flowering stems. Leaf length ranges from 0.5 to 6 centimeters, though ordinarily less than 5 cm (2 in). Their width is 3 to 12 millimeters. They may be lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic; shaped like a spear head, reversed, or with sides like two ellipses. The end of the leaf may be narrow or bluntly pointed, seldom the leaf vein extends out into an extended mucronate tip. The inflorescences have few flowers all facing one direction away from the stem. Each flowering stem will have two to seven groups of flowers with a pair of cymes each with one flower. As the base of each group there will be a pair of lanceolate bracts, 4–16 mm long. …

The species is native to the Pacific Northwest of North America from Oregon to British Columbia, and east to the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta. In Canada it grows in southwestern Alberta and the interior of British Columbia. In the Rocky Mountains it grows in Idaho and Montana, but only reaches as far south as Park County, Wyoming in the state's northwestern corner. In Washington and Oregon it is found in many areas from the eastern side to the Cascades. It grows at elevations of up to 3,000 meters (9,800 ft). It grows on cliffs, rock outcrops, gravelly slopes, in forest openings, and along roadcuts. It is associated with sagebrush and with juniper woodlands.

Conservation. Shrubby penstemon was evaluated by NatureServe in 2016 and rated as secure (G5). They also rated it as secure (S5) in British Columbia and as apparently secure (S4) in Montana. In Alberta and Wyoming they rated it as vulnerable (S3), but have not evaluated it in Idaho, Washington, or Oregon.