Keckiella antirrhinoides (formerly Penstemon antirrhinoides) is a species of flowering shrub in the plantain family known by the common names snapdragon penstemon and chaparral beardtongue.
It is native to the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Deserts of California, Arizona, and northern Baja California. It is also found in the chaparral—Colorado Desert ecotone of the Peninsular Ranges.
Description Keckiella antirrhinoides is desert shrub that grows one half to two and a half meters tall, with spreading branches.
The oppositely-arranged leaves are up to 2 centimeters long and are lance-shaped or narrow ovals. They are deciduous during dry periods.
The plant produces branchlike inflorescences which bear snapdragon-like flowers. Each hairy, glandular flower is about 2 centimeters wide, with three lower lobes which lie flat or curve down and two upper lobes which join to form a curved lip. Inside the flower are shiny filamentous stamens holding anthers and a flat, densely hairy sterile stamen called a staminode. The flowers are light yellow and dry to nearly black.
Taxonomy The botanist George Bentham described a new species in the Penstemon genus in 1846, which he named Penstemon antirrhinoides. In 1967 Richard Myron Straw moved it to the new genus Keckiella giving the species its accepted name Keckiella antirrhinoides. Together with its genus it is classified in the Plantaginaceae family and it has two accepted varieties.
Keckiella antirrhinoides var. antirrhinoides – Baja California, Sonora, and southern California Keckiella antirrhinoides var. microphylla – Baja California, California, Nevada, and Arizona
Keckiella antirrhinoides has ten synonyms of the species or its two varieties.
Table of Synonyms Name Year Rank Synonym of: Notes Keckia antirrhinoides 1966 species K. antirrhinoides ≡ hom. Keckia antirrhinoides var. microphylla 1966 variety var. microphylla ≡ hom. Keckiella antirrhinoides subsp. microphylla 1967 subspecies var. microphylla ≡ hom. Lepidostemon penstemonoides 1862 species var. antirrhinoides = het. Penstemon antirrhinoides 1846 species K. antirrhinoides ≡ hom. Penstemon antirrhinoides subsp. microphyllus 1951 subspecies var. microphylla ≡ hom. Penstemon antirrhinoides var. microphyllus 1922 variety var. microphylla ≡ hom. Penstemon lobbii 1862 species var. antirrhinoides = het. Penstemon microphyllus 1857 species var. microphylla ≡ hom. Penstemon plummerae 1906 species var. antirrhinoides = het. Notes: ≡ homotypic synonym; = heterotypic synonym
Range Snapdragon penstemons are native to northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States. In Mexico it is grows in both Baja California and in Sonora. In the US it is found in nine counties in the western two-thirds of Arizona, but just Clark County at the southern tip of Nevada.In California it is known from San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties in southern California.
References Citations
Sources Web sources
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment Photo gallery