General: Firecracker Penstemon (Penstemon eatonii) is a perennial forb with a tuft of leaves on the ground and several knee to thigh-high, upright stems that bear red, tubular flowers. The flowers have five "petals" at the opening of the tube. The "petals" are actually asymmetrical lobes, with two lobes up and three lobes down. All of the lobes point outward (as if the flower is not fully open). Two of the four anthers, plus the stigma (looks like a filament without an anther), protrude slightly. The staminode is slightly bearded (sometimes naked), but it does not stick out of the flower tube. The anther sacs are tubular and open on the end.

Around Las Vegas, compare with Utah Penstemon, but an aid to identifying Firecracker Penstemon is that the flowers tend to come off one side of the stem and all point in same direction.

Firecracker Penstemon is a fairly common component of desert vegetation communities in dry, well-drained gravelly areas in the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) and Transition (Yellow Pine Forest) life zones. This species is fairly common on roadsides.

Family: Figwort (Scrophulariaceae). Recent genetic research suggests that Penstemon should be included in the Plantaginaceae.

Other Names:

Plant Form: Several upright stems all arising from a tuft of leaves on the ground.

Height: Flowering stalk to about 3 feet.

Stems: Round, tends to be red.

Leaves: Lower leaves to about 4-inches long, somewhat elliptical (lanceolate to ovate), flat (not obviously folded along the center line). Leaves on flowering stems (cauline leaves) opposite, triangular, generally not clasping around the stem.

Flowers: Blooms late spring and early summer. Flowers tubular, but complex and bilaterally symmetrical; red to purple, flower tube with 5 lobes (upper lip with 2-lobes, lower lip with 3). Lobes point outward (not folding back).

Seeds: Fruit: oblong capsule. Seeds: small, black.

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils in higher desert habitat and into the middle-elevation mountain habitats.

Elevation: About 5,000 to 9,000 feet.

Distribution: Southern California desert mountains to Colorado and New Mexico.

Comments: This is a fairly common species at Red Rock Canyon and on Mt. Charleston.