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Penstemon cerrosensis
Cedros Island, Baja California, Mexico
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Plantaginaceae
Genus:	Penstemon
Species:	P. cerrosensis
Binomial name
Penstemon cerrosensis Kellogg
Synonyms
Penstemon brevilabris Penstemon cedrosensis

Penstemon cerrosensis, also known as Cedros Island penstemon, is a species of flowering plant in the large Penstemon genus in the veronica family. It is endemic to Cedros Island in Baja California.

Description

Penstemon cerrosensis grows between 10 and 40 centimeters tall with stems that are quite woody near the base, but otherwise herbaceous. Stems branch near their bases, are hairless, and glaucous; covered in natural waxes giving a grayish or bluish color.

Most of it leaves are attached by petioles, though the uppermost ones are almost sessile. They have smooth edges and are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate in shape, like a spear head or somewhat egg shaped. Like the stems they are hairless and glaucous. The ends of the leaves recurve back towards the plant and the tip is mucronate, having the central leaf vein extended somewhat beyond the body of the leaf.

The many flowers of the inflorescence are attached to the main stem by branched peduncles, flower stalks, with two or three flowers in a group. The funnel shaped fused flower petals reach 12–15 millimeters in length and are bright scarlet in color. They are mildly ventricose, inflated, on their undersides and curved upwards. The five lobes at the mouth of the flower are almost equal in size. The staminode is also hairless and slightly expanded towards its end.

It can bloom in March, April, May, or June.

Taxonomy

Penstemon cerrosensis is classified in the Penstemon genus in family Plantaginaceae. It was given its first scientific description and name by Albert Kellogg in 1863. The specimens that Kellogg used to describe the plants from the island were collected by John Veatch in 1858. At the time Cedros Island was incorrectly marked on English language maps as Cerros Island. Starting in 1888 a number of botanists including Edward Lee Greene and Louis Krautter corrected this name as Penstemon cedrosensis, but as Kellogg's spelling was intentional it is not subject to correction under botanical rules. Despite this notable botanists such as Ira Loren Wiggins have used the name as recently as 1980. It has no subspecies or varieties, but it has two botanical synonyms.

Names

It is known in English as Cedros Island penstemon. When it was described by Kellogg in the Hesperian magazine in 1860 he bestowed the evocative name hummingbird's dinner horn.

Range and habitat

The natural range of Penstemon cerrosensis is restricted to Isla Cedros in the Pacific Ocean just off the west coast of the Baja California peninsula.

Plants grow on rocky slopes and on cliff faces on the island. It can be found from elevations of 25 to 1,150 meters (80 to 3,770 ft). It is part of the canyon slope scrub community on the island, which is dominated by shrubs like redberry buckthorn (Rhamnus crocea ssp. insula), Cedros Island sage (Salvia cedrosensis), and Baja desert-thorn (Lycium brevipes).

Ecology

Its bright red flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds.

Uses

This penstemon is not in cultivation.

See also

• List of Penstemon species

References

1. Wiggins 1980, pp. 505–506.
2. ^ Krautter 1908, p. 129.
3. ^ Wiggins 1980, p. 506.
4. Krautter 1908, pp. 129–130.
5. ^ Krautter 1908, p. 130.
6. ^ POWO 2025.
7. WFO 2025.
8. ^ Kellogg 1860, p. 490.
9. ^ Ewan 1953, p. 46.
10. Keck 1937, pp. 822–823.
11. Gray 1882, p. 229.
12. ^ Wolfe Lab 2023.
13. Oberbauer 1993, pp. 118–119, 123.
14. Lindgren & Wilde 2003, p. 29.

Sources

Books

• Lindgren, Dale T.; Wilde, Ellen; American Penstemon Society (2003). Growing Penstemons : Species, Cultivars, and Hybrids. Haverford, Pennsylvania: Infinity Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7414-1529-5. OCLC 54110971. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
• Oberbauer, Thomas A. (1993). "Floristic analysis of vegetation communities on Isla de Cedros, Baja California, Mexico". In Hochberg, F.G. (ed.). Third California Islands Symposium : Recent Advances in Research on the California Islands. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. ISBN 978-0-936494-05-0.
• Wiggins, Ira L. (1980). Flora of Baja California. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 505–506. ISBN 978-0-8047-1016-9. OCLC 6284257. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

Journals

• Ewan, Joseph (1953). "Botany at the Academy in the City of the Golden Fifties". Leaflets of Western Botany. 7 (3): 43–57. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
• Gray, Asa (8 February 1882). "Contributions to North American Botany". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (in English and Latin). 17 XII: 163–230. doi:10.2307/25138649. ISSN 0199-9818. JSTOR 25138649. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
• Keck, David D. (1937). "Studies in Penstemon V. The Section Peltanthera". American Midland Naturalist. 18 (5): 790–829. doi:10.2307/2420419. JSTOR 2420419.
• Krautter, Louis (1908). "A Comparative Study of the Genus Pentstemon". Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. 3 (2): 93–206. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

Magazines

• Kellogg, Albert (January 1860). "Pentstemon cerrosiana". The Hesperian. p. 490. Retrieved 8 January 2025.

Web sources

• POWO (2025). "Penstemon cerrosensis Kellogg". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• WFO. "Penstemon cerrosensis Kellogg". World Flora Online. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• Wolf Lab (2023). "Penstemon cerrosensis". Wolfe Lab Penstemon Database. Ohio State University. Archived from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2025.

• Penstemon
• Flora of Baja California