pentstemon

American  

[pent-stee-muhn, pent-stuh-] / pɛntˈsti mən, ˈpɛnt stə- /

noun

1. penstemon.

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pentstemon British  

/ pɛntˈstiːmən /

noun

1. any scrophulariaceous plant of the North American genus Penstemon (or Pentstemon ), having white, pink, red, blue, or purple flowers with five stamens, one of which is bearded and sterile

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Etymology

Origin of pentstemon

1750–60; < New Latin, equivalent to pent- pent- ( def. ) + Greek stḗmōn warp, thread

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pentstemon

Conspicuous and characteristic flowers of the lower altitudes are the mariposa lily, iris, wallflower, gaillardia, and numerous species of cinquefoil, pentstemon, and evening primrose.

From Rocky Mountain [Colorado] National Park by United States. Dept. of the Interior

Scrambling up the slimy bank, through a maze of thorn trees, brambles, and sycamore scrubs, we gained the fertile bottom above, all luscious with tall grasses bespangled with wild red roses and the showy pentstemon.

From Afloat on the Ohio An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo by Reuben Gold Thwaites

The alpine spiræa grows here also and blossoms profusely with potentilla, erigeron, eriogonum, pentstemon, solidago, and an interesting species of onion, and four or five species of grasses and sedges.

From The Yosemite by John Muir

Would Olivia ever love any flowers quite as she had loved those first seedlings, especially a certain pentstemon, which 221 blossomed “white with purple spots,” exactly as the seed-catalogue had promised?

From A Bookful of Girls by Anna Fuller

"It seems I am to have a meadow of my own," said the glacier, by the time there was stone-crop and purple pentstemon blowing in the damp crevices about its border.

From The Basket Woman A Book of Indian Tales for Children by Mary Hunter Austin