Thin, funnel-shaped flowers arranged in a wand, stem mostly bare between the inflorescence and base.

Such a wonderful surprise. About a dozen or so plants spread across about 1/2 acre. The funny thing is, I had planned to go to a different prairie I’d never been to before a couple days after this sighting, specifically to look for this flower. It was a long shot that I’d find it at that other prairie, but I’m so happy to have found it by accident here!

Same population as https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/122217322, but in a different part of the prairie.

There is also a fair amount of Penstemon digitalis (Foxglove Beardtongue) throughout. These plants differ in the following ways:

• Flowers are arranged in whorls close to the central stem, as opposed to branching away from the central stem more conspicuously.
• Flowers are narrow and flare out at the tip like a trumpet, without bulges in the center of the flower
• Flowers have tiny hairs inside the corolla
• The stems have small leaves until the base, whereas the P. digitalis plants have longer, serrated leaves closer to the inflorescence.