Intro: Erect perennial of bottomlands, forest edges, hammocks and moist, low meadows.

Stems: Stems 1-several but generally not branched above base, smooth or minutely hairy.

Leaves: Leaves opposite, sessile, variable but mostly oblong-lance-shaped, to about 5 in. long, toothed, mostly smooth.

Inforescence:

Flowers: Flowers many, in a narrow terminal panicle, with glandular-hairy branches angled upward; white becoming violet-purple; 1/2-3/4 in. long; bilaterally symmetric; tubular and abruptly inflated above the middle, with 2 lips--the upper 2-lobed and mostly equal to the lower, which is 3 lobed. Corolla throat white inside with no (or faint) lines and a barely protruding yellow-bearded tongue.

Fruits:

Comments: Identification of Penstemon species difficult due to variations in flower characters such as color, patterning, relative length of parts, and degree of constriction/dilation of the corolla tube.

Height: 1-4 ft.

plant sale text: Eastern Smooth Beardtongue produces loose clusters of flowers borne on upright unbranched stems. The flowers open white and darken to a pale purplish shade. Excellent cut flower. Its seed pods can provide interest in the fall and its leafy rosettes persist through the winter. In the wild it can be found in low meadows and forest edges. The Cherokee tribe used the species medicinally as a gastrointestinal aid.

bloom table text:

description: Erect perennial of bottomlands, forest edges, hammocks and moist, low meadows.

stems: Stems 1-several but generally not branched above base, smooth or minutely hairy.

leaves: Leaves opposite, sessile, variable but mostly oblong-lance-shaped, to about 5 in. long, toothed, mostly smooth.

inflorescence:

flowers: Flowers many, in a narrow terminal panicle, with glandular-hairy branches angled upward; white becoming violet-purple; 1/2-3/4 in. long; bilaterally symmetric; tubular and abruptly inflated above the middle, with 2 lips--the upper 2-lobed and mostly equal to the lower, which is 3 lobed. Corolla throat white inside with no (or faint) lines and a barely protruding yellow-bearded tongue.

fruits:

comments: Identification of Penstemon species difficult due to variations in flower characters such as color, patterning, relative length of parts, and degree of constriction/dilation of the corolla tube.

cultural notes:

germination code: 2

native range: eastern United States