GILIA BEARDTONGUE
File Size: 115 KB
 
Penstemon ambiguus  Torr.
Kearney County, Kansas (Marion McGlohon photo)
Perennial
Height: (8-)12-16(-24) inches
Family: Plantaginaceae – Plantain Family
Flowering Period:   May, June, July, August
Stems: Erect or ascending, slender, glabrous or scabrous proximally, much branched from a woody base.
Leaves: Opposite, cauline, (7-)10-25 pairs, simple, sessile; blades filiform, .2 to 1.6 inch long, .02 to .1 inch wide, base tapered, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or scabrous, not glaucous, apex acuminate to mucronate.
Inflorescences: Thyrse, terminal, interrupted, cylindric to conic, 2.4 to 6 inches; verticillasters 6-10, cymes with 2 or 3 flowers; proximal bracts linear, .24 to 1.2 inches long, up to .06 inch wide; peduncles ascending, glabrous or scabrous.
Flowers: Calyx lobes 5, ovate, 1.06 to .14 inch long, .04 to .06 inch wide, glabrous, acute to mucronate, green with white margins; corolla pink, (limb milky pink or milky white), lined internally with reddish-purple nectar guides, salverform, .6 to 1 inch long, glandular pubescent internally in 2 lines on abaxial surface; lobes 5; upper lobes rounded, reflexed; lower lobes rounded, projecting-spreading; stamens 4, included; staminode 1, included, threadlike to straplike, .28 to .35 inch, glabrous; style glabrous, very slender.
Fruits: Capsule, ovoid, .24 to .35 inch long, .12 to .2 inch wide, glabrous; seeds dark brown, numerous, angled, .04 to .11 inch.
Habitat: Sandy plains and hills
Distribution: Kearney, Morton, and Stevens Counties in southwest Kansas.
Origin: Native
Uses: Some Native American tribes used gilia beardtongue as a medicinal or ceremonial plant (Moerman 1998).
Comments: Penstemon, five and stamens, and ambiguus,ambiguous.
Gilia beardtongue
165 KB
Kearney County, Kansas (Marion McGlohon photo)
Gilia beardtongue habit
191 KB
Kearney County, Kansas (Marion McGlohon photo)