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Home  /  Plants  /  Budburst Species  /  Penstemon digitalis
Phenology Observation Sheet for Wildflowers and Herbs

COMMON NAME

foxglove beardtongue

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Penstemon digitalis

ALSO KNOWN AS

Foxglove penstemon, Smooth white beardtongue

Plant family

Plantain (Plantaginaceae)

Plant group

Wildflowers and Herbs

Foxglove beardtongue is a hairless perennial growing 3-5 feet tall when flowering. It can have one or more slender purple stems topped with a cluster of white flowers. Rhizomes can produce clones around the base.
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OBSERVERS
961+
OBSERVATIONS
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Identification hints

The common name of beard tongue comes from the tuft of hairs on the sterile stamen, which resembles a beard. The foliage can be semi-evergreen in the South.
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Did you know?

The tuft of hairs on the anthers may be important in pollination of Foxglove. The hairs rub against the backs of bees and other insect pollinators that visit the plant and cause the anthers to bend in such a way as to deposit pollen on the backs of the insects.
DISTRIBUTION IN TH U.S.
Alabama , Arkansas , Connecticut , District of Columbia , Delaware , Georgia , Iowa , Illinois , Indiana , Kansas , Kentucky , Louisiana , Massachusetts , Maryland , Maine , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Mississippi , North Carolina , Nebraska , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York , Ohio , Oklahoma , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Carolina , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Virginia , Vermont , Wisconsin , West Virginia
HABITAT
Foxglove beardtongue can be found in sunny to partially shaded areas, prairies or open woodlands.
ATTRIBUTES
Leaves
Before flowering, foxglove beardtongue leaves at the ground without a stem (basal rosette). The leaves grow to about 6" long by 2½" wide, oval shaped with smooth leaf margins. Once it begins to develop flowers, the leaves grow opposite one another on the stem, lance-shaped and with small teeth on the margins.
Flowers
Foxglove beardtongue stems terminate in a loose cluster of white flowers, which are borne on branches in groups of two. The flowers are tubular, the petals are divided into a lower lip with 3 lobes and an upper lobe with 2 lobes. The flowers have five stamens; four of the stamens are fertile (make pollen) and one is sterile.
Fruits
Fruit is a dry capsule filled with many small seeds. The seeds are gray and angled irregularly.
Bloom Time
Blooms between May and July.

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