Does anyone know what this is?

[dreamshark]

Comments

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

Looks like it might be a type of (or related to) Foxglove (http://www.flowerspictures.org/flowers/foxglove/)

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Looks like Large Flowered Penstemon aka Large Beard Tongue.

[mplsfish.livejournal.com]

I just saw this in a friends garden and she said what it was. But I just looked up the word I remember and that isn't it. I'll try to get back to you.

[mplsfish.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, this looks like a good match. Where is it?

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Growing in a sunny meadow in Shakopee. I think it's really pretty.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

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.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

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.

[pameladean]

The leaves look like penstemon leaves. Foxglove has longer ones and they don't grow in pairs on either side of the stem like that.

That's a really glorious plant. I've tried to grow it in the yard, but it didn't cooperate.

P.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

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.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Probably because your yard has beautiful rich dark soil instead of a gravelly sand with a dollop of clay.