Watch Out for that Hot-Rock!

Hot-Rock Penstemon

With my job, I've been seeing a lot of plants I've never seen before and some that I've never even heard of. Hot-Rock Penstemon (Penstemon deustus) is one of the plants that I have never seen or heard of before. I found it while hiking up the Hunter Creek trail. When I first noticed it, it didn't appear that interesting--it looked like a bushy, little, green plant that was just hanging out on the side of the trail. However, when I looked closer, I saw that it had beautiful, little, white and purple flowers and I thought to myself "wow, what could this plant be?"

Hot-Rock Penstemon flowers

When I went home, I looked it up in one of my plant books and found it to be Hot-Rock Penstemon. As I alluded to above, the Hot-Rock Penstemon is fairly inconspicuous. It has small flowers and the plant is quite bushy so you don't necessarily notice the flowers at first. When you do notice the flowers, you find that they are unique and quite beautiful. They are white and trumpetlike. They have dark purple/brown guidelines that lead to the nectar hidden within.

Hot-Rock Penstemon flower

Hot-Rock Penstemon is a useful plant, it is used for wildlife habitat enhancement and restoration efforts. It is also a popular plant used in xeriscaping. In addition, a poultice of the smashed leaves has been used to aid in the healing of skin sores, such as boils, mosquito bites, tick bites and open sores.

It's fun to see the Hot-Rock Penstemon in nature, because it's so different from most of the penstemon in the area. Many Penstemon tend to have bright purple, pink and/or blue flowers, so the white flowers of the Hot-Rock is quite unique.