Foxglove Beardtongue
Penstemon digitalis
Purple and white flowers from May into July, worked by two-spotted bumble bees and black-and-gold bumble bees. It grows wild in 42 of Virginia’s 133 counties.
- Light
- Part shade to full sun
- Soil
- Dry to moist soil
- Size
- 3 ft to 4 ft tall, 1.8 ft wide
- Flowers
- Purple and white, May to Jul
- Leaves
- Deciduous
- Roots
- Spreading rhizomes or runners; wants 8 in of soil
- Kind
- Wildflower
At its grown size
in flowerfruit or seedfall colorbare for winter
What it feeds
- Caterpillars
- 7 kinds of caterpillars
- Bees
- 46 kinds of native bees
- Birds
- 2 kinds of birds
- On its flowers
- Two-spotted bumble bee (Bombus bimaculatus), Black-and-gold bumble bee (Bombus auricomus), Digger bee (Anthophora terminalis), Golden northern bumble bee (Bombus fervidus)
Grows well with
Calico Aster
Bluestem Goldenrod
Sweet Goldenrod
Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod
New Jersey Tea
New England Aster
Dwarf Azalea
Small's RagwortFacts from the Quercus record for Penstemon digitalis.