That sure does look like the same plant. Is it related to foxglove? It looks a lot like a beautiful purple flower I saw in Scotland that turned out to be a kind of foxglove.
Well, they're both in the same, huge plant family (was Scrophulariaceae, now Plantaginaceae), so yeah, kind of related. Foxglove flowers are more tubular and penstemons are only partially tubular and have bigger lips.
How glorious to see that in the field! It's even a true native wildflower, not just a garden escapee. Here's another site with discussion.
It's always the difficult to cultivate plants that you find growing in a field.
For many years, I tried to grow sunflowers at my old house. They didn't like the soil and they never grew. In the meantime, I would drive down the freeway and see the sunflowers growing between the cracks in the concrete on the side of the road.
The sunflowers like the new place, so I don't notice the freeway plants as much.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-06-12 05:22 am (UTC)Looks like it might be a type of (or related to) Foxglove (http://www.flowerspictures.org/flowers/foxglove/)
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Date: 2013-06-12 05:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-12 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-12 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-12 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-12 06:56 pm (UTC)How glorious to see that in the field! It's even a true native wildflower, not just a garden escapee. Here's another site with discussion.
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Date: 2013-06-12 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-12 09:04 pm (UTC)That's a really glorious plant. I've tried to grow it in the yard, but it didn't cooperate.
P.
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Date: 2013-06-12 10:12 pm (UTC)For many years, I tried to grow sunflowers at my old house. They didn't like the soil and they never grew. In the meantime, I would drive down the freeway and see the sunflowers growing between the cracks in the concrete on the side of the road.
The sunflowers like the new place, so I don't notice the freeway plants as much.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-13 02:54 am (UTC)