Slender Beardtongue - Purple Blue Prairie Flower

Slender Beardtongue  © SB

The light blue-purple flowers of Slender Beardtongue swayed gently in the evening breeze in a hollow on the high prairie at Grasslands National Park.

A few weeks later, I saw these Penstemon again, this time in an unmown ditch near Saskatchewan's Parkland region, their tall stems with purple flower clusters and long, slender leaves swaying in the wind.

A closer look inside the mouths of these flowers confirms the source of their name. Yes, the tongues are covered in coarse hairy fibres, like a soft, white beard.

Inside the mouth of a Slender Beardtongue flower ©SB 

Slender Beardtongue ©SB

Slender Beardtongue cluster ©SB

Slender Beardtongue at Grasslands National Park ©SB

Prairie Wildflower: Slender Beardtongue  

Location: Top 4 pix: near Muenster;  Bottom: Grasslands National Park; Saskatchewan, Canada.  

Photo Date: July 6, 2015 and June 21, 2012.  

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