Common Name(s): | Heart Leaved Penstemon |
Scientific Name: | Keckiella cordifolia |
Family: | Plantaginaceae (Plantain) |
Plant Type: | Perennial |
Size: | up to two meters |
Habitat: | Coastal Sage, Oak Woodlands |
Blooms: | March to August |
Fire Response: | Stump Sprout or Seed |
Heart Leaved Penstemon (Keckiella cordifolia) is a spreading vine-like perennial shrub that sports some colorful flowers that vary from Orange to Scarlet. Sprawling over other plants, Heart Leaved Penstemon can reach up to six feet in height and spread out for ten feet in width. The plant has opposite leaves and flowers with one pistil and five stamens, only four of which are fertile. The sterile stamen (Botanists refer to it as a staminode) has no anther, and its purpose may be to guide pollinator to the available nectar. After the flower falls off, this stamen often remains connected to the plant. Adapted for pollination by hummingbird rather than insects, the reddish or orange narrow tube-shaped flowers have little odor, abundant nectar and present exserted (sticking out from the flower) anthers and stigmas.
Name Origin: Keckiel'la: after David Daniels Keck (1903-1995), an American botanist known for his work on experimental taxonomy who collaborated with Philip Munz on A California Flora (ref. genus Keckiella) www.calflora.net is the source of this info.
cordifo'lia: in Latin means with "heart-shaped leaves"