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Cary's Beardtongue - Penstemon caryi
State Rank Reason (see State Rank above)
Restricted in Montana to the Pryor Mountains.
- Details on Status Ranking and Review
Population Size
Score2 - Small: Generally 2,000-10,000 individuals.
CommentAvailable data supports an estimate of only a few thousand plants though data are limited and some sites have either imprecise estimates or no population estimate avilable.
Range Extent
Score3 - Local Endemic or Very Small Montana Range: Generally restricted to an area <10,000 sq. miles (equivalent to the combined area of Phillips and Valley Counties) or <6 Sub-basins (4th code watersheds) Range-wide OR limited to one Sub-basin in Montana
Area of Occupancy
Score2 - Low: Generally occurring in 4-10 Subwatersheds (6th Code HUC’s).
Environmental Specificity
Score0-1 - Low to Moderate.
CommentOccurs in a variety of habitats and has been found along some roadcuts.
Trends
ScoreNA - Rank factor not assessed.
CommentTrends are unknown, though there is no indication that the species' has experienced severe declines in Montana.
Threats
Score0-1 - Low to Medium.
CommentSome occurrences are near areas of human-use and have the potential to be negatively impacted. However, no threats have been identified that would be high in terms of scope or severity.
Intrinsic Vulnerability
Score0-1 - Low to Moderate Vulnerability.
Raw Conservation Status Score
Score
7 to 10 total points scored out of a possible 16 (Rarity factors and threats only).
General Description
Stems erect, 15–35 cm. Herbage glabrous, often glaucous. Basal leaf blades linear-oblanceolate, entire, 2–7 cm long. Stem leaves lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 4–8 cm long, clasping the stem. Inflorescence crowded, of 3 to 7 few-flowered verticillasters. Flowers: calyx 7–10 mm long; sepals ovate, acuminate, erose- and scarious-margined; corolla blue to lavender, 22–32 mm long; anthers villous, not opening near the filament; staminode sometimes nearly glabrous. Capsule 5–12 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
Phenology
Flowering in June and July, fruiting in July.
Species Range
Montana Range
Range Descriptions
Native
Range Comments
Regional endemic of the Bighorn and Pryor mountains of north-central Wyoming (Big Horn, Sheridan, and Washakie counties) and south-central Montana.
Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 42
(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version)
Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density
Recency
(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)
Habitat
Stony, calcareous soils in Douglas-fir forests, juniper woodlands, sagebrush steppe from the montane to lower subalpine zone (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
Ecological Systems Associated with this Species
Ecology
POLLINATORS The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap:
Bombus vagans,
Bombus appositus,
Bombus auricomus,
Bombus bifarius,
Bombus centralis,
Bombus fervidus,
Bombus flavifrons,
Bombus frigidus,
Bombus huntii,
Bombus melanopygus,
Bombus mixtus,
Bombus nevadensis,
Bombus rufocinctus,
Bombus sylvicola,
Bombus occidentalis,
Bombus pensylvanicus,
Bombus bimaculatus,
Bombus griseocollis,
Bombus impatiens,
Bombus insularis,
Bombus suckleyi,
Bombus bohemicus, and
Bombus kirbiellus (Macior 1974, Thorp et al. 1983, Bauer 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Wilson et al. 2010, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Colla et al. 2011, Koch et al. 2012, Pyke et al. 2012, Miller-Struttmann and Galen 2014, Williams et al. 2014, Tripoldi and Szalanski 2015).
Threats or Limiting Factors
STATE THREAT SCORE REASON
Threat impact not assigned because threats are not known (MTNHP Threat Assessment 2021).
References
- Literature Cited AboveLegend:
View Online Publication- Bauer, P.J. 1983. Bumblebee pollination relationships on the Beartooth Plateau tundra of Southern Montana. American Journal of Botany. 70(1): 134-144.
Colla, S., L. Richardson, and P. Williams. 2011. Bumble bees of the eastern United States. Washington, DC: USDA Forest Service, Pollinator Partnership. 103 p.- Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.
- Koch, J., J. Strange, and P. Williams. 2012. Bumble bees of the western United States. Washington, DC: USDA Forest Service, Pollinator Partnership. 143 p.
- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
- Macior, L.M. 1974. Pollination ecology of the Front Range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Melanderia 15: 1-59.
- Mayer, D.F., E.R. Miliczky, B.F. Finnigan, and C.A. Johnson. 2000. The bee fauna (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of southeastern Washington. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 97: 25-31.
- Miller-Struttmann, N.E. and C. Galen. 2014. High-altitude multi-taskers: bumble bee food plant use broadens along an altitudinal productivity gradient. Oecologia 176:1033-1045.
- Pyke, G.H., D.W. Inouye, and J.D. Thomson. 2012. Local geographic distributions of bumble bees near Crested Butte, Colorado: competition and community structure revisited. Environmental Entomology 41(6): 1332-1349.
- Thorp, R.W., D.S. Horning, and L.L. Dunning. 1983. Bumble bees and cuckoo bumble bees of California (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 23:1-79.
- Tripoldi, A.D. and A.L. Szalanski. 2015. The bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) of Arkansas, fifty years later. Journal of Melittology 50: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17161/jom.v0i50.4834
- Williams, P., R. Thorp, L. Richardson, and S. Colla. 2014. Bumble Bees of North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 208 p.
- Wilson, J.S., L.E. Wilson, L.D. Loftis, and T. Griswold. 2010. The montane bee fauna of north central Washington, USA, with floral associations. Western North American Naturalist 70(2): 198-207.
- Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
- Stone, Benjamin W., Alexander Ward, Max Farenwald, Andrew W. Lutz, and Andrea D. Wolfe. 2019. Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in Cary's Beardtongue Penstemon caryi (Plantaginaceae), a rare endemic to the eastern Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. Conservation Genetics 20: 1149-1161.
- Strickler, D. 1997. Northwest penstemons. Flower Press, Columbia Falls, Montana. 191 pages.
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