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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Gulf Coast Penstemon
Penstemon tenuis
Gulf Coast Penstemon is a slender perennial wildflower that sends up erect flowering stems up to about 30 inches tall, topped with clusters of bell-shaped purple flowers with white throats from spring into early summer. It grows naturally in damp, open alluvial ground along Gulf Coast prairies and marshes, in full sun to part shade and evenly moist clay, clay loam, sandy loam or sandy soil, and self-sows freely into dense colonies where soil stays consistently moist. Its abundant nectar draws hummingbirds and native bees, and the cut stems hold up well in a vase. Native to southeastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 7–9
- Soil
- Clay · Loam · Sand
- Moisture
- Moist · Wet
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- Not yet recorded
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–30 in
- Mature spread
- Not yet recorded
- Plant spacing
- 12–18 in
- Root type
- Not yet recorded
- Spread pattern
- Seed
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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