By Emily Crennen, Museum Education Specialist
Did you know that several plants are named after a man that lived in Windsor? George E. Osterhout, originally from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, moved to Windsor at the age of 27 to support his health with Colorado’s pure air. Mr. Osterhout was a botanist, or plant scientist that found a deep love for the plants that grew in the Rocky Mountains. He had his own private collection of 25,000 species that he gathered and preserved himself that now live at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium in Wyoming.
Most days, he would go hiking around areas like Cameron Pass, to gather any flowering specimens that were unfamiliar to him. One such specimen was a type of penstemon, also commonly called a beardtongue. This flower grows in abundance in the Rocky Mountains and high plains; you have likely seen them before!
Penstemons grow in a spike on a durable, woody stem. The flowers are what gives this plant its odd common name. Ranging from pinks and reds to hues of purple and blue, the flowers are tubular with a cupid’s bow top lip and three lobes on their bottom lip. They are called beardtongues due to a long, infertile stamen on the bottom lip, protruding out of the tube of the flower. This stamen is usually hairy and long, making the flower look like it has a fuzzy tongue, thus giving it the name beardtongue!
While we do not know the exact date or location that Mr. Osterhout found his original sample of Penstemon osterhoutii, we can imagine this dedicated man, tromping around with a heavy rucksack full of identification books and plant specimens pressed between the pages. I can see him pausing every few steps to lean down and greet a new plant, one that he had never encountered on the east coast. At some point, he sits down under a tall pine tree for a break. Maybe he spies something delightfully purple, immediately drawing his eyes away from the wash of grays, browns, and greens that litter the forest floor. “Is that flower… sticking its tongue out at me?” he chuckles as he carefully collects a new specimen, one that had not been identified by botanists before.
While this is just a story, it is fun to imagine the process of identifying and meeting new plants. You can encounter stories like these and so much more in our adult with child program, Beginner Naturalists! Our final session of the season is August 10th at the Historic Halfway Homestead from 3-4 p.m. Join us then to learn all about native and invasive plants in Colorado, strange and exciting plant lore, medicinal uses, and so much more!