Authors: Nutt.
ex A. Gray. [3] Stems 10-60cm tall, glandular hairy in the inflorescence. Leaves entire, the basal ones persistent up to 12cm long, oblanceolate to more often elliptic or ovate. Flowers glandular hairy, blue purple, 1-1.7cm long. Dry open, often rocky places, frequently with sagebrush from plains and foothills to high elevations in mountains of Cascade-Sierra Crest and west of Continental Divide at 1500-3400m. Among the most widespread and beautiful of miniature penstemons. P.h. subsp. humilis has basal leaves cinereous-pubescent to puberulent, 2-13mm wide; flowers 1.2-1.8cm long. P.h. subsp. brevifolius has basal leaves glabrous, 7-13mm wide, cauline leaves always entire, flowers 7-13mm long. Wasatch Range of Utah, Idaho and Nevada. P.h. subsp. obtusifolius has basal leaves glabrous, 1.4-3.2cm wide, cauline leaves less often toothed, flowers 7-13mm long and wide. Markagunt Plateau, Utah.
a, P. heterophyllus; b, P. humilis; c, P. ovatus; d, P. richardsonii;