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Plant Profile

White-margin Beardtongue (Penstemon albomarginatus)

Penstemon albomarginatus flower Photo Credit: Gina Glenne

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Plantaginaceae
State: AZ, CA, NV
Nature Serve ID: 127884
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection:

Description:

A perennial herb, 1.5-3 dm tall, distinctively pallid in color. The spatula-shaped leaves and the calyx lobes are conspicuously white-margined. Flowers (March-May) are pink-lavender with darker purple accents.

Where is White-margin Beardtongue (Penstemon albomarginatus) located in the wild?

Habitat:

In California, this plant occurs in fine alluvial sand in a wide canyon within a creosote bushscrub community. The sand is deep and stabilized, holding the long taproot in place. It is also present in wind-blown sand at the head of the canyon. It occurs at elevations from 2000-3000 ft. (700-1000 m.) in alkaline soil (Scogin, 1989). In Nevada, the plants prefer the base of hills and mountains in wind-blown sand dune-like areas, but are also found in deep loose sand in wash bottoms. In Arizona, it occurs in sandy loam uplands and sandy washes in a broad alluvial plain, but gravelly areas alternating with and interspersed with the sandy places do not support this species.

Distribution:

Sandy dunes and washes in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

States & Provinces:

White-margin Beardtongue can be found in Arizona, California, Nevada

Which CPC Partners conserve White-margin Beardtongue (Penstemon albomarginatus)?

The Arboretum at Flagstaff

Not Sponsored

Assigned 06/09/17

California Botanic Garden

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Katie Heineman

02/28/2023

California Botanic Garden made a conservation seed collection on BLM land in Nevada.

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden holds 2 accessions of Penstemon albomarginatus in orthodox seed collection. There are as many as 33492 seeds of this species in their collection - although some may have been used for curation testing or sent to back up.

08/05/2020

Based on an August 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden has collected 2 seed accessions of Penstemon albomarginatus from 2 plant occurrences listed in the California Natural Diversity Database. These collections together emcompass an unknown number of maternal plants

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

Penstemon albomarginatus is known from three widely disjunct locations: the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada, the Mojave Desert of southeastern California, and the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona. Rare in California (fewer than five extant occurrences), but occassionally locally abundant elsewhere. The primary threat to this species is habitat degradation due to land-conversion.

Sheila Murray

01/01/2010

Not Available

Sheila Murray

01/01/2010

18 known populations, with individuals numbering in the thousands.

Sheila Murray

01/01/2010

Not Available

Sheila Murray

01/01/2010

BLM, Department of Defense

Sheila Murray

01/01/2010

Not Available

Sheila Murray

01/01/2010

Genetic studies of clusters in the field could determine if each group was clonal. More propagation studies should be carried out to determine if seedlings, cuttings, or transplanted plants could be used for mitigation efforts.