of Interior 1975) . It was formally placed 

 in Category 1 in 1980 (U.S. Department of 

 Interior 1980) . It was placed in Category 

 2 in 1983, and has retained this status to 

 date (U.S. Department of Interior 1983, 

 1985, 1990). 



2. State. 



a. Montana. 



i. Present designated or proposed 

 legal protection or regulation: 

 None. 



ii. Other current formal status 



recommendations: The species is 

 currently listed as "imperiled 

 in Montana" (state rank = S2) by 

 the Montana Natural Heritage 

 Program (Shelly 1990a) . 



iii. Review of past status: 

 Previously listed as 

 "recommended threatened" by the 

 Montana Rare Plant Project 

 (Lesica et al. 1984) . 



b. Idaho. 



i. Present designated or proposed 

 legal protection or regulation: 

 None. 



ii. Other current formal status 



recommendations: The species is 

 currently listed as "imperiled 

 in Idaho" (state rank = S2) by 

 the Idaho Natural Heritage 

 Program (Moseley and Groves 

 1990) . 



iii. Review of past status: 



Henderson (1981) recommended 

 that P. lemhiensis be accorded 

 federal "threatened" status. 



3. Description. 



A. General nontechnical description: Penstemon 



lemhiensis is a stout herb with stems that are about 

 15-30 inches tall. The flowers are bright blue to 

 purple in color, and about 1^-2 inches long. The 



