A long drive across the prairies last weekend was enlivened a bit for me as I stopped to look at some roadside plants... here is white beard-tongue, Penstemon albidus, a little colony in bloom, in west-central Saskatchewan.
The glandular nature (i.e. having glands that exude a sticky or oily substance) of the inflorescence is made clear by all the tiny bugs and little bits of what-not stuck to it, visible in some of the photos!
1 - 3) Overall plant
4) Basal rosette showing oblong to spatulate, petioled lower leaves (re. Moss & Packer, Flora of Alberta)
5) Flower close-up
6) Part of the grove, growing in a rather sandy area.
Here is the range map from the USDA Plants site. (Bear in mind that this site uses political boundaries, rather than actual ranges that would be based on observation and might be linked to specific habitats or climatic zones. In other words, if the plant occurs anywhere in Alberta or any state, it will be shown as though it occurs everywhere within Alberta or within that particular state, which may not be the case. It is an excellent resource, nonetheless, though.)
http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch?keywordquery=penstemon+albidus&mo...
