Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Uinta Basin beardtongue

(Penstemon grahamii)

galery
en

Description

Penstemon grahamii, known by the common names Uinta Basin beardtongue and Graham's beardtongue, is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family. It is native to Utah and Colorado in the United States. This perennial herb produces one or more stems reaching up to about 20 centimeters tall. They are hairy, and in the inflorescence, glandular. The leaves are thick, leathery, and dark green to grayish in color. The basal leaves narrow toward the stem, and the upper leaves clasp the stem. The tubular flowers are between 3 and 4 centimeters long and pink to lavender in color with reddish nectar guides in the throat. The yellow, bearded staminode protrudes from the mouth of the flower. Blooming occurs in May and June. It grows in desert shrubland and pinyon-juniper woodland habitat. Much of the terrain occupied by the plant contains oil shale, a valuable source of petroleum. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the plant with threatened status in 2006 when it appeared that extensive petroleum exploration could endanger the plant. The Service sought data from scientists, as well as from the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 60% of the plant's habitat and leases land for petroleum exploration. The data provided by the BLM convinced the USFWS not to list the plant, and the proposal was withdrawn. The Union of Concerned Scientists then exposed the BLM's data as "misleading", stating "the plant does not have all the protections that the best available science indicates that it needs. Penstemon the beardtongues, is a large genus of roughly 250 species of flowering plants native mostly to the Nearctic, but with a few species also found in the North American portion of the Neotropics. It is the largest genus of flowering plants endemic to North America. Formerly placed in the family Scrophulariaceae by the Cronquist system, new genetic research has placed it in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae. They have opposite leaves, partly tube-shaped, and two-lipped flowers and seed capsules. The most distinctive feature of the genus is the prominent staminode, an infertile stamen. The staminode takes a variety of forms in the different species; while typically a long straight filament extending to the mouth of the corolla, some are longer and extremely hairy, giving the general appearance of an open mouth with a fuzzy tongue protruding and inspiring the common name beardtongue.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Lamiales
Family:Plantaginaceae
Genus:Penstemon
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