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Penstemon fendleri; photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-21

Penstemon fendleri Torr. & A.Gray

Fendler's beardtongue; Fendler's penstemon

Plantaginaceae · Kansas, Oklahoma +4

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Penstemon fendleri, photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY)Penstemon fendleri, photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY)Penstemon fendleri, photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY)Penstemon fendleri, photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY)Penstemon fendleri, photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY)Penstemon fendleri, photograph (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY) 102 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-9.2°C
Record low -17.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
471mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
19–48DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Penstemon fendleri, also known as plains penstemon or Fendler's penstemon, is a moderate sized flowering plant from the southwestern US and small part of northern Mexico.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Penstemon fendleri", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Penstemon

Penstemon, the beardtongues, is a large genus of roughly 280 species of flowering plants native to North America from northern Canada to Central America. It is the largest genus of flowering plants endemic to North America. As well as being the scientific name, penstemon is also widely used as a common name for all Penstemon species alongside beardtongues.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Penstemon", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (336 mm of 464 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.3 °C against a yearly mean of 15.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

464 mm in the median year at the habitat, 336 mm of it May to October. Wettest month August at 70 mm, driest months (2 at 18 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 334 mm to 643 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 471 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 464 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -9.2 °C, the absolute minimum -17.8 °C, 3,515 frost nights in 44 years, 79.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -0.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -3.6 °C to 2.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 46 to 52% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +83 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Penstemon fendleri through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -0.3 °C; 464 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-17.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 19–48RH 46–52%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 406 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 9–1515 / 11–1819 / 15–2224 / 20–2628 / 25–3031 / 29–3332 / 29–3431 / 28–3428 / 25–3024 / 20–2617 / 14–2012 / 8–16
Night °C0 / -4–31 / -2–45 / 1–89 / 5–1314 / 10–1718 / 15–2121 / 17–2320 / 16–2316 / 13–1911 / 7–145 / 1–80 / -4–3
Rain mm18 / 13–2818 / 12–3325 / 12–4426 / 10–5448 / 12–8760 / 19–9663 / 50–7970 / 55–8753 / 38–6842 / 30–6920 / 14–3421 / 15–31
DLI22 / 20–2428 / 25–3036 / 33–4044 / 40–4847 / 41–5248 / 44–5246 / 45–4741 / 41–4337 / 34–3929 / 27–3223 / 21–2619 / 18–22
RH %51 / 48–5450 / 46–5348 / 43–5246 / 39–5148 / 38–5450 / 38–5451 / 47–5252 / 50–5352 / 48–5451 / 46–5450 / 46–5351 / 49–54
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 406 grid cells holding the 643 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1109:1571 (34.525, -101.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 406 distinct grid cells holding 643 of the 643 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1109:1571 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_-101.250, lapse-corrected +83 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 972 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker34.952, -101.689 · in the densest population, 489 records (59% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 823 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 643 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 367 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 61 km away. 180 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 823 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Penstemon fendleri, photograph 1did not loadPenstemon fendleri, photograph 2did not loadPenstemon fendleri, photograph 3did not loadPenstemon fendleri, photograph 4did not loadPenstemon fendleri, photograph 5did not loadPenstemon fendleri, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Helianthus ciliaris Helianthus ciliaris Texas blueweed Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightPsilostrophe tagetina Psilostrophe tagetina Marigold paper-flower Photo: CC BY, IDClaireOenothera cinerea Oenothera cinerea Woolly beeblossom Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickMachaeranthera tanacetifolia Machaeranthera tanacetifolia Tahoka daisy Photo: CC0, author not statedBerlandiera lyrata Berlandiera lyrata Chocolate-flower Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickDalea formosa Dalea formosa Feather-plume Photo: CC BY, Joseph Aubert

Other Penstemon 122 in the reference

Penstemon alamosensis Penstemon alamosensis Los Alamos beardtongue Photo: CC BY-SA, bmasintonPenstemon albertinus Penstemon albertinus Alberta beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadPenstemon albidus Penstemon albidus White beardtongue Photo: CC0, author not statedPenstemon ambiguus Penstemon ambiguus Bush penstemon Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydPenstemon amphorellae Penstemon amphorellae Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Ricardo Jaimes-LópezPenstemon angustifolius Penstemon angustifolius Broadbeard beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Stephen HornbeckPenstemon aridus Penstemon aridus Stiffleaf penstemon Photo: CC BY, John BrewPenstemon arkansanus Penstemon arkansanus Arkansas beardtongue Photo: CC BY, hr_dragonflyPenstemon attenuatus Penstemon attenuatus Sulphur Beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Ellen EirikssonPenstemon auriberbis Penstemon auriberbis Colorado beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Elliott GordonPenstemon australis Penstemon australis Eustis Lake beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Raven DandridgePenstemon azureus Penstemon azureus Azure penstemon Photo: CC BY, Parker James Lloyd all 123 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Torr. & A.Gray
Native to
Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona +3
Wild records
823 in range · 367 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (20 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_-101.250, lapse-corrected +83 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Penstemon fendleri Torr. & A.Gray (the item's: IPNI 808094-1, POWO 187387-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…