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Hairy Beardtongue is a ridiculous name for a plant, but it's out there saving endangered species.
Early spring is a starvation period for pollinators. They emerge from winter before most flowers are blooming. The nectar gap is real and it kills colonies.
Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus) blooms in late spring, earlier than most native perennials, filling exactly that gap.
Newly hatched bumblebees depend on it. It hosts a specialist mason bee, Osmia distincta, that uses almost nothing else.
It's a larval host for the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly and 12 other species of moths and butterflies, including the threatened Saunders' Sallow Moth.
It also thrives in poor, dry, rocky soil where almost nothing else will grow. Deer won't touch it. It comes back every year. It spreads slowly without taking over.
It does all of this while being named Hairy Beardtongue.
Native to eastern North America. Easy to find at native plant nurseries this time of year. Plant it once and it feeds pollinators for decades.
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