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Glite Dictionary
Penstemon whippleanus

Penstemon whippleanus

9.9
A mountain wildflower from the Rocky Mountains with purple to dark flowers
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Penstemon whippleanus
  • Gardeners value Penstemon whippleanus for its hardy nature and striking purple flowers.

Examples

  • The wildflower Penstemon whippleanus adds vibrant color to many mountain meadows in Colorado.

  • The Penstemon whippleanus thrives in rocky, mountainous areas.

  • Botanists identified several clusters of Penstemon whippleanus along the high-altitude trail.

  • Have you seen the beautiful Penstemon whippleanus blooming this spring?

  • Botanists identified several clusters of Penstemon whippleanus along the high-altitude trail.

  • Gardeners value Penstemon whippleanus for its hardy nature and striking purple flowers.

  • The wildflower Penstemon whippleanus adds vibrant color to many mountain meadows in Colorado.

Synonyms

Whipple's penstemon
vsPenstemon whippleanus
  • Specialized
9.9

A wildflower with deep red to purple or black flowers that grows in the Rockies from Montana to New Mexico

gives a general native Rocky Mountains description rather than naming states

Surface Forms

Penstemon whippleanus singular
Penstemon whippleanus plural

Morphology

Penstemon + whippleanus

Knowing 'Penstemon' (a genus of beardtongue plants) lets a learner infer that this is the name of a plant species, but the specific epithet 'whippleanus' is a Latinized proper name with no lexical meaning a learner can use to derive the species' characteristics. Botanical binomials are therefore partly compositional (genus + epithet) but the informative content about flower colour or habit is not predictable from the epithet, making the phrase only partially transparent.

Etymology

Penstemon whippleanus gets its name from Penstemon, which means 'beard-tongue' because the flower has a small hairy, tongue-like part inside, and whippleanus, named after an explorer, Whipple, who collected plants in the Rocky Mountains. So the name reminds you of the plant's fuzzy 'tongue' and its mountain origin.