Flower of Barneby's Beardtongue

Description

I found this beautiful and rarely seen wildflower growing in the remote Hot Creek Range while hiking 500 miles across the Great Basin in Nevada. Penstemon is a large genus of wildflowers, with several hundred species found in North America. The Great Basin harbors a great variety of them! Seeing the diversity of plants in the cold desert mountains always surprises me. Like other arid places, they often get overlooked as places worth visiting, but I have never had a bad time in the Great Basin. I think it is fun to look for plants, animals and other natural phenomena in less-visited places. Give it a try!