Rydberg's Beardtongue

The meadow penstemon usually has two kinds of stems, short ones with just leaves and tall ones ending in an inflorescence. All of its herbaceous stems grow from a branching, woody caudex, usually with a taproot beneath it. The flowering stems are usually 20 to 70 centimeters (8 to 27.5 in), but can on grow to as much as 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in). Stems may grow straight upwards, outwards before curving to grow upwards, or grow along the ground. All of the stems can be hairy or hairless, but sometimes the hairs are only found on lines on the stems below where the leaves attach. Very often the stems get progressively more red towards the top. Most of the leaves are basal, at the base of the plant, and attached to the flowerless stems. The basal leaves and the lowest ones on the flowering stems are 2.5–15 cm (1–6 in) long, but more usually 3.5–7 cm (1.5–3 in). Their width is 0.5–2.2 cm, though commonly 1–1.5 cm. Their shape is oblanceolate to elliptic with tapering bases and a narrow to widely angled point, very rarely mucronate. The leaves attached to the flowering stems are in three to six pairs attached to opposite sides and are 2.5–11 cm (1–4 in) long, though usually shorter than 7 cm. They are 0.3–2.4 cm wide and lanceolate to elliptic or oblong.

The inflorescence has one to seven well separated groups of flowers, formally called verticillasters, crowning the stems. …

Meadow penstemons are native to the western United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific States. In New Mexico they are only found in the northern mountainous parts of the state. In Colorado it likewise is known from the western, mountainous portion of the state and is only known from Carbon and Fremont counties in Wyoming. Similarly, it is only recorded in four of the southwestern counties of Montana. It is found in almost all parts of the Great Basin, but is not found in eastern Nevada. It is found in southern Idaho and not the northern panhandle. It generally does not grow west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon. In California it grows in the northern Coast Ranges, the Klamath Mountains, and in the higher parts of the Sierra Nevada in the central part of the state. Most penstemons prefer dry habitats, but the meadow penstemon is usually found in moist places such as near streams or wet meadows.

Experimental evidence shows that meadow penstemons increase in areas where the northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) are active. They often grow more thickly at the edge of areas disturbed by the gophers. They contain iridoids bound as glycosides named euphroside, plantarenaloside, aucubin, and geniposidic acid.

Although small flowered, it is sometimes grown in gardens particularly by people living in areas moist climates. It is propagated by seed and requires twelve weeks of cold-moist stratification for good levels of sprouting.