Penstemon nitidus


Smooth Blue Beardtongue

Grasslands National Park
05-June-1995

Note the yellow-bearded staminode (sterile stamen), and two of the four fertile stamens.

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Nitidus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
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plants herbaceous; NOT shrubby

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stem NOT woody

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stems erect or nearly so; NOT decumbent to ascending

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stems and leaves glabrous; NOT puberulent

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stems and leaves glaucous

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lower bracts suborbicular; NOT lanceolate

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flowers NOT:[numerous in dense terminal spikes or nodal clusters]

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flowers 12-25 mm long; NOT 25-40 mm long, NOT 8-12 mm long

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flowers blue; NOT purple to violet, NOT white, NOT finely purplish lined, NOT spotted

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corolla-tube broad funnelform, decidedly widened towards the throat; NOT slender and only slightly widened towards the throat

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style included

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style NOT yellow-pilose

 
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Penstemon: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.
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plants mostly more than 4 dm high (Flora of Alberta).  This specimen, photographed during a dry spring, is clearly less than 4 dm.

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leaves all or chiefly cauline (sometimes also with a basal rosette)

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principal leaves opposite or whorled

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leaves entire

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leaves NOT pinnately or bipinnately lobed

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leaves NOT:[small and palmately veined]

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plants NOT with showy flowers mostly in the leaf axils

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plants NOT:[with flowers all axillary and less than 7mm long]

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calyx NOT:[tubular, sharply angled]

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calyx 5-parted; NOT 4-toothed, NOT 4-lobed

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corolla 5 mm long or longer

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upper lip of corolla erect; NOT arching

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corolla NOT spurred at the base

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four anther-bearing stamens and one long sterile stamen (staminode)

 

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Scrophulariaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family. 
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herbs

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plants green or with some chlorophyll

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plants NOT aquatic

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leaves NOT bearing bladders

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stems NOT square

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flowers NOT in heads or spikes

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flowers with two floral rings, but with the petals wholly or partly united forming a tube or bell

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corolla irregular

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ovary superior

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fruit a many-seeded capsule; NOT composed of four nutlets