Eastern Smooth Beardtongue
Penstemon laevigatus
Found in low meadows, bottomlands, forest edges, hammocks. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), South Central edition What its natural habitat tells you
Native to Alabama. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 100%
- Height
- 1–4 feet
- Spread
- 2–3 feet
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil moisture
- Somewhat dry to moist
Space about 2.5 ft apart from its recorded spread, about 16 per 100 sq ft. Enter your bed size for a count
Will it fit your yard?
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial
- Leaves
- Deciduous
- Bloom
- Spring and summer
- Fruiting season
- July to August
Recorded in 50 Alabama counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open, grassy or flowery ground that is not wet, such as mountain meadows; wet meadows are separate.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
Care
- Avoid overly wet or poorly drained soil.
Who uses this plant?
8CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including AL
Genus host records with ranges including AL · Penstemon
- Archirhoe neomexicanaNew Mexico Carpet
- Elaphria chalcedoniaChalcedony Midget
- Endothenia hebesanaVerbena Bud Moth
- Euphydryas phaetonThe Baltimore, The Black Checker
- Junonia coeniaCommon Buckeye
- Pyrrhia ciliscaAmerican Bordered Sallow, Noble Sun Moth
- Sparganothis sulfureanaSparganothis Fruitworm Moth, Sulfur Leafroller, False Yellow-Head
- Stenoptilodes taprobanesNarrow Plume Moth
46BeesSoutheastern regional records
Southeastern regional records · Penstemon
Individual names are not available yet.
Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
2Specialist beesPollen specialists
Pollen specialists · Penstemon
- Atoposmia abjecta
- Osmia distincta
2BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Penstemon
- Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey
- Tympanuchus pallidicinctusLesser Prairie-Chicken
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Beetles 1
- Trichius piger
Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA
Adult butterflies / moths 1
- Deilephila lineata
Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA
No records yet · Ants · Flies · Other wasps · Other insects
Plant details
- Family
- Plantaginaceae
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–9b
- Soil pH
- Acidic
- Flower color
- Purple or white
- Fruit begins
- July
- Fruit ends
- August
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Bloom · “Spring and summer” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition differs)
- Flower color · “Purple or white” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Fruit begins · “July” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition (ranked first; NC Extension Plant Toolbox differs) · Carolinas and Georgia
- Fruit ends · “August” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition (ranked first; NC Extension Plant Toolbox differs) · Carolinas and Georgia
- Hardiness · “Zones 5a–9b” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Height · “1–4 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards differs)
- Leaves · “Deciduous” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Light · “Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day)” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards, Virginia DCR Piedmont, Virginia DCR Coastal Plain differ)
- Soil · “Good drainage; Moist; Occasionally dry; Occasionally wet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards, Virginia DCR Piedmont, Virginia DCR Coastal Plain differ)
- Soil pH · “Acidic” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Spread · “2–3 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
Also known as
Eastern Smooth Beard Tongue
Conservation status
| Alabama rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| AL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Growing cautions
- Needs good drainage. Avoid overly wet or poorly drained soil. NC State Extension Plant Toolbox
For planning only; these do not change the score or Fit.
Sources
- Alabama Plant Atlas
- USDA PLANTS
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina (NC Natural Heritage Program)
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications