Leaves lanceolate-ovate (longer to much longer than wide, with the widest part toward the base) to wide cordate (heart-shaped), ~2-5 cm long, .~1-3 cm wide, acute tip, palmately veined (veins branch out from a common point by the base), veins indented, creating a quilted effect. Leaf is glabrous (smooth-surfaced) to puberulent (faintly fuzzy), shiny, bright green to dark green. Margins toothed, sometimes slightly and other times markedly and sharply, usually with 3-11 short teeth. The leaf surface may be wavy or arched back. Leaves are sessile (directly attached to stems without petioles or small leaf stalks). Leaves may be shed during summer drought, so the plant may look dead in summer. Inflorescence is a panicle (compound-branching cluster) that is compact and leafy and may contain several to a dozen or more individual flowers. Scarlet or orange-red flowers with a short calyx (~0.7- 1.3 cm long) and a long tubular corolla (3-4.5 cm long). The corolla opens out into 2 lips, the upper one with 2 partly fused lobes continuing out in a helmet-like structure, the lower one divided into 3 wide-spreading lanceolate lobes (~1-2 cm long) that bend outward/downward. There are 5 stamens exserted past the lower lip but covered by the upper lip. Flowers April to July. Fruit is ovoid in shape with long hairs extending from the tip. Splits lengthwise to release many, angular seeds. Plant is a loosely branched shrub about 1-2 m high with a bit of a climbing habit. Favors dry slopes in chaparral or forest, under 1200 m in elevation, in the southern Central Coast Ranges, the Transverse and Peninsular ranges, the South Coast (including the Channel Islands), and northern Baja. Taxonomy is undergoing revision, the genus being pulled out of Penstemon and the family, Scrophulariaceae being divided into several families.
Keckiella cordifolia aka Penstemon cordifolius (Scrophulareaceae): climbing penstemon or heart leaved Penstemon or heart leaved Keckiella
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.