Index / Search / Penstemon laetus
§1 Plant
Penstemon laetus A. Gray
vernacular mountain blue penstemon — species · Scrophulariaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Subshrub
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Scrophulariaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Penstemon
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 32 counties across 2 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- Medium
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 12 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 150 min.
- Precipitation
- 12–20 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–7.6
- Root depth
- 12 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 2.5 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 2 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Gray-Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Blue
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 400,000
- Propagation
- seed, bare root, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Contracting Only
- Nursery stock
- No
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 32 counties across 2 states/territories.
California view state ↗ 25 N ▾
- Amador 06005
- Butte 06007
- Calaveras 06009
- Del Norte 06015
- El Dorado 06017
- Fresno 06019
- Humboldt 06023
- Kern 06029
- Lake 06033
- Lassen 06035
- Madera 06039
- Mariposa 06043
- Modoc 06049
- Nevada 06057
- Orange 06059
- Placer 06061
- Plumas 06063
- Santa Barbara 06083
- Siskiyou 06093
- Tehama 06103
- Trinity 06105
- Tulare 06107
- Tuolumne 06109
- Ventura 06111
- Yuba 06115
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/PELA7 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3171551 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T20:46:58Z