Palmer's Penstemon

An easy way to identify penstemons is to look for a staminode (that fuzzy thing coming out of the middle of the flower). It's a sterile stamen and a distinctive feature of the Penstemon genus. Another common name is beardtongue because of this.

Thanks! Interesting, I don't remember the penstemon I saw in Colorado looking like this.

Great! Thanks dw33zy, I'm very happy to know what this is!

Definitely a penstemon. I just uploaded a spotting of Palmer's penstemon on my page. Check it out if you want and compare. I found it growing on a roadside bank in a large cluster.

lovely! :)

This is spectacular! My best guess would be some kind of Mimulus or closely related but I can't find a species to match at the moment.