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

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 Thwaites, Reuben Gold

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 Fuller, Anna

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 Muir, John

An abundance of wild flowers, varying in color with the growing season, include principally the Mariposa lily, Indian paint brush, pentstemon, lupine, wild sweet pea, and a great variety of the compositae family.

From Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado by United States. Dept. of the Interior

The showy flowers are mostly three species of gentian, a purple and yellow orthocarpus, a golden-rod or two, a small blue pentstemon almost like a gentian, potentilla, ivesia, pedicularis, white violet, kalmia, and bryanthus.

From My First Summer in the Sierra by Muir, John