#292: Palmer's Penstemon

And a few of its pollinators

My regular bike ride — on a multi-use paved trail along a state highway — takes me past an area where Palmer’s penstemons grow in profusion each spring.¹ I almost never take a camera with me because I like to ride fast and hate to stop. But I’ve been looking longingly at the penstemons as I’ve passed them the last couple of weeks, so I finally went back on foot with a camera.

They grow pretty tall — four or five feet — which means they’re much easier to photograph than wildflowers that are only a few inches off the ground. Penstemons are also called beardtongues; I think the photo below shows how they got their alternate name.

While I was shooting, I realized that the bees routinely flew around the flowers to their bases, rather than diving right into them. I couldn’t understand how pollination could possibly occur that way. I watched and took lots of photos, and finally figured it out (I think).

They were pollinating — or, at least, nectaring — through small openings in the flower base. Whether those openings had already existed when they’d arrived, or whether they created them, I don’t know.

There were also some large, all-black bumblebees that had intrigued me on my bike rides, and I wanted to make sure I got a few photos of them too.

The shot below shows the details of the one above. Can you see the bee’s proboscis sunk right into the base of the flower? Wow! Its colorful iridescence is pretty spectacular too.

My original intention in photographing the penstemons was to see what they look like internally. Many of the flowers were a pastel pink; in fact some were so pastel they seemed nearly white. But then again there were some, like those below, that sported not simply a vivid pink but glitter as well. Again: wow!

Palmer’s penstemons have a sweet and subtle fragrance, which smells a bit like cloves to me.

I’ll leave you with one last bee pic, just because I like it so much.²

1. If you’re local, you can see these without hiking, although you will have to walk five or ten minutes. Park in the strip mall (where Smith’s and McDonald’s are) on the NE corner of Montgomery and Tramway. Walk north on the paved trail (east side of Tramway) to the next traffic light, at Manitoba. Cross Manitoba, staying on the paved trail, and you’ll be in the midst of the flowers within a minute or two. They were still going great guns this morning and I’m guessing they’ll probably stick around for at least another week or so.

2. See how you can barely see one of its wings as a blur? They apparently beat really fast. (I used a 1/1250 of a second shutter speed for the shot, which is not exactly slow.)