Keckiella cordifolia
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Keckiella cordifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Penstemon cordifolius Benth.
Editorial Note
Bean treated this species as Penstemon cordifolius. For a brief explanation of the taxonomy, see the genus entry.
An evergreen shrub of straggling loose habit; young shoots opposite, very downy. Leaves heart-shaped, pointed, coarsely toothed, 1⁄2 to 2 in. long and about two-thirds as wide, glossy dark green, minutely downy on both sides; stalk 1⁄8 in. or less long. Flowers produced in a large terminal pyramidal panicle as much as 12 in. long and 9 in. wide. Corolla 11⁄2 in. long, scarlet, glandular-downy, with a cylindrical tube, two-lipped; upper lip hooded, the lower one decurved and divided into three linear lobes. Calyx very glandular, downy, 1⁄3 in. long, cut deeply into five lanceolate lobes; flower-stalk glandular; anthers yellow, finally whitish. Bot. Mag., t. 4497.
Native of California; discovered by David Douglas in 1831; introduced by Hartweg in 1848 through the Horticultural Society. The sterile stamen is conspicuously bearded on one side with pale hairs. Like most of the shrubby penstemons this is not very hardy, but when grown at Kew on a south wall, it makes a fine display from late June until August or even later. It is undoubtedly one of the finest of the shrubby species.