Common names: PENTSTEMON, BEARDTONGUE Arizona desert: (Pentstemon pseudospectabilis). Rose-purple. April-July. California desert. (Pentstemon thurberi). Blue-purple. April-June. Texas desert: (Pentstemon fendleri). Blue-purple. April-June. Figwort family. Size: Perennial herbs from a few inches high to 3 feet or more tall.
Widespread through the Southwest at nearly all elevations, the Penstemons are conspicuous herbs or small shrubs with showy flowers that attract attention and admiration when they are in bloom in the spring and early summer on the desert.
PURPLE
Lupinus sparsiflorus
Lupinus havardi
Common names: LUPINE, BLUEBONNET Arizona desert: (Lupinus sparsiflorus). Violet-purple. January-May. California desert: (Lupinus odoratus). Royal purple. April-May. Texas desert: (Lupinus havardi). Blue-purple. March-April. Pea family. Size: Bushy, and up to 2 or 2½ feet tall.
Lupines are among the old dependables of spring display flowers of the desert, usually mingling with other blossoming herbs to create the bright color pattern for which the desert is famous in early spring, but occasionally growing in pure stands. Ranging in color from pale pink to deep purple, the Lupines are usually considered as blue flowers.
The name “Lupine” comes from the Latin word meaning wolf and was applied to these plants because they were believed to rob the soil of its fertility. Actually, they prefer the poorer, sandy soils and, by fixing in the soil nitrogen that they, in common with other plants of the pea family, are able to obtain from the air, they actually improve the land on which they grow.
Perhaps the best known display of Lupines takes place each spring in Texas. Here the “Bluebonnet” (L. texensis and L. subcarnosus) has been named the state flower of Texas, and the annual spring display attracts thousands of people to the areas of heavy bloom. The majority of Lupines have handsome flowers, some species are fragrant, and several species are cultivated as ornamentals. The seeds of a few species contain alkaloids which are poisonous to livestock, especially sheep.
PURPLE