Wet Showy Penstemon on Granite Sand

---

Mokelumne Wilderness, Eldorado National Forest, Alpine County
mid afternoon Saturday July 27, 1991, slide 91A_20-16
Olympus OM-4T, 50mm Zuiko macro, Benbo Trekker
Drum scanned 35mm Kodachrome 64 to 100mb RGB file
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 processed for accurate image fidelity
Lightjet5000 printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper
signature top mid left

---

Late one afternoon I backpacked in from Carson Pass the short distance to Frog Lake. I was to visit Winnemucca Lake a couple easy miles further in later the next day. This area within Mokelumne Wilderness has exceptional displays of wildflowers and as such is a favorite destination of July wildflower seekers each summer.

The next morning thunderstorm clouds formed early. On the bench north of the lake searching for images of wildflowers, I took some close up photos of this penstemon. By noon rain, lightning, and thunder sent me into my tent. As the storm passed, brilliant sunshine shot through a hole in the clouds. I thought it might be an opportunity to re-shoot the just rained on penstemon? Indeed when I reached the wildflower, small round water drops lay atop the petals like jewels. Since this flower was located atop a windy ridgeline just above the pass, it grew stunted close to the ground. That afforded me an opportunity to position my lens close while maintaining good depth of field with the granite sand ground. In this picture one will notice the quite wet looking spaces between the coarse sand.

Showy penstemon, penstemon speciosus, occurs at mid to timberline elevations of the Sierra Nevada often in well-drained dry flats and slopes in association with sagebrush.

Blue and purple are the most common colors of the many penstemon species in California with this species possibly the most deeply saturated bluish purple. Coming across these plants in the high country under a brilliant sun, flowers at times seem to glow intensely like neon. Notice how the neck at the base of the corolla tubes is a pink to magenta color. The 1 to 1.5 inch long tube tends to be inflated in the middle colored by fine linear veins of blue and magenta that appear purple from one's standing distance. At the flared tubular end the color is more solid deep blue. Unseen in this image, inside the tubes, are splotches of white. Back at the tube base, sepals are a deep rose red color with translucent specs of green showing through. Note sepals enclose the maturing petals while the flower is still a bud. The two short flowers just left of center have rounded ends that plug the yet unopened tube. The leftmost flower shows a short green pedicel connecting up to the stem including a small green pointed leaf like bract. The flower at center shows several mainly rose colored bracts just above the sepals. Just above those sepals are two short real leaves like those larger at the top frame edge. Now if I were a little ant how wonderful it might be to crawl up inside these glowing purple wonders for a nap!

Crop at 100% print size:

   David Senesac
   email: sales@davidsenesac.com

return to home page