Penstemons: America's greatest wildflower and a new book!

Penstemon versicolor

A classic penstemon in bloom: in this case, a rather rare and local species I'll discuss later--one of the reasons for this post as a matter of fact: photographed 20 years ago in the Wildflower Treasures garden at Denver Botanic Gardens.

This is the map showing the distribution of Penstemon in the continental United States: I'll bet a concerted search would be able to fill some of those dark green counties--the "Driftess" area of Wisconsin and northern Iowa surely must have a few P. grandiflorus growing, for instance...and those dark green blotches in the Southeast! Few wildflowers cover the United States so gloriously and colorfully!

Here's another shot of Penstemon versicolor I took on another occasion in Wildflower Treasures: both the penstemon and the Garden are both long gone--even these photos were retrieved from a website where they are no longer present (their thumbnails are lingering sadly in the browser where I downloaded them). This distinctive penstemon was absent for decades in the standard Rocky Mountain Flora of the region where it grew: so many penstemons! The otherwise meticulous Dr. Weber apparently lost track of a few (he also forgot to list the distinctive Cochetopa pass endemic Penstemon ramaleyi!)

Here is the range of P. versicolor: one of our most showy endemic taxa: the map is misleading--it's pretty much limited to limestone bluffs along the Arkansas river--a narrow and fragile range that is undergoing rapid development from construction. Southeastern Colorado: perhaps the most under-touristed quadrant of the State has been discovered. And Woe betide the plants that lie in the path of bulldozers!

I talked at length and showed pictures of the spectacular garden of Don and Donnie Barnett when I hyped their LAST book: the Cactus of Colorado. Do click on that yellow shadowed link in the last sentence to review not just the book, but my high praise of their spectacular garden.  The Barnetts--father and son (with a very supportive and wonderful wife/mother Cecelia) are a dynamic force that operate a specialty nursery (Ethical Desert) as well as cranking out books (2 so far with more in the pipeline). Their Colorado Cactus has been a great success...

Sample page from the Barnett's monograph

Why buy a regional guide to Penstemon? A monograph of the whole genus doesn't exist, and if it did it would be enormous and unwieldy. Penstemons do tend to congregate in clusters of endemics--and Southeastern Colorado boasts some of the loveliest--like P. versicolor for instance! And each of them has a fascinating story to be told: the Barnetts tell those stories well, and their detailed descriptions, dot maps of county occurrences and notes about cultivation and so much more make this book a must for anyone who considers themselves a wildflower lover of our American treasures.

How can you get a copy of this book? Click HERE to buy it on the Ethical Desert website..or you can order it for $5,00 more if you look for it on Amazon.

If there were a single genus that merited being the national flower of the United States, this is it! The genus seems to specialize in red, white and blue (with very few yellows, by the way) and as you can see from the BONAP map, it covers the country as thoroughly as  Sherwin Williams colors the planet in bright red paint (that annoying logo shall not be allowed to have the last word.)

My last word is a confession: I wrote the Foreword to this lovely book: a short and I hope poignant essay where I talk about the enormous significance Southeastern Colorado has for our state, the country and particularly for myself: I have spent countless hours exploring this unspeakably beautiful part of our America that has remained amazingly un-despoiled. Alas, I fear that could be changing! Let's hope the Barnett's books alert the public and officials so that some of the magnificent wildflower displays shown so well in this book that lie in the path of mindless development are preserved. Let's hope this book will be their signpost and not their epitaph!