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Penstemon procerus

Common name:	Small-Flowered Penstemon	Family:	Scrophulariaceae
Author:	Douglas.	Botanical references:	200, 204
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	North-western N. America - Alaska to Oregon, east to Wyoming and Colorado.
Habitat:	Dry plains, prairies and open or wooded slopes at low to fairly high elevations[204].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Littleflower Penstemon [P], Pincushion Beardtongue [B],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	procerus = tall;
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Scrophulariales. Figwort family

Physical Characteristics

Perennial growing to 0.4m by 0.2m . It is hardy to zone 3. It is in flower from July to August. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Tea.

A tea-like beverage is made by boiling the dried leaves and stems[183].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Succeeds in ordinary rich garden soils so long as they are well-drained[1]. Succeeds in dry soils. Prefers a position in full sun[188].
Although very cold hardy, this species does not like winter wet and therefore is best given some protection in the winter or a position such as at the foot of a dry wall[200].

Propagation

Seed - sow late winter in a greenhouse[1]. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in late spring.
Alternatively, the seed can be sown in early summer in a greenhouse, the seedlings overwintered in the greenhouse and then planted out in the following spring[1].
Division in autumn[111].
Cuttings can be taken throughout the growing season, though August/September is best[1].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Scrophulariaceae.

[CHINA] Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[111] Sanders. T. W. Popular Hardy Perennials. Collingridge 1926
A fairly wide range of perennial plants that can be grown in Britain and how to grow them.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[188] Brickell. C. The RHS Gardener's Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd. 1990 ISBN 0-86318-386-7
Excellent range of photographs, some cultivation details but very little information on plant uses.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[204] Livingstone. B. Flora of Canada National Museums of Canada 1978 ISBN 0-660-00025-3
In 4 volumes, it does not deal with plant uses but gives descriptions and habitats.

Readers Comments

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Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Penstemon+procerus
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Penstemon+procerus

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