Editing Penstemon (section)

===History===
[[John Mitchell (geographer)|John Mitchell]] published the first scientific description in 1748; although he only named it as ''Penstemon'', researchers David Way, Peter James, and Robert Nold identify it as ''[[Penstemon laevigatus]]''.{{sfn|Way|James|1998|p=16–17}}{{sfn|Nold|1999|p=58–59}} [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] then included it in his 1753 publication, as ''Chelone pentstemon'', altering the spelling to better correspond to the notion that the name referred to the unusual fifth stamen (Greek "penta-", five). The botanist [[Casimir Christoph Schmidel|Casimir Schmidel]] published a description of the species in 1763, and for this reason he is given priority in botanical publication.{{sfn|Nold|1999|p=58–59}} Mitchell's work was reprinted in 1769, continuing with his original spelling, and this was ultimately accepted as the official form, although ''Pentstemon'' continued in use into the 20th century.{{sfn|Way|James|1998|p=17–18}} In addition, a rare spelling of ''Pentastemon'' is occasionally found in older works.{{sfn|Heil|O'Kane, Jr.|Reeves|Clifford|2013|p=715}}

Although several more species were found in the early 18th century, they continued to be classified in ''[[Chelone (plant)|Chelone]]'' until 1828 in some publications. The period of 1810 to 1850 increased the number of known species from 4 to 63, as expeditions traveled through Mexico and the western United States, followed by another 100 up to 1900, although not all these species remained classified as ''Penstemon''.{{sfn|Way|James|1998|p=18–19}}

The American members of the genus were extensively revised by [[David D. Keck]] between 1932 and 1957{{sfn|Bennett|Lodewick|Lodewick|1987|p=15–16}} and Richard Straw did similar work on the Mexican species slightly later.{{sfn|Way|James|1998|p=19}} In 1960 the important book ''Penstemon Nomenclature'' was published by American Penstemon Society president Ralph Bennett with the advice of Keck. This book was updated and republished with the Robin Lodewick in 1980 and continued to be an important source of information about the genus through the year 2000.{{sfn|Way|James|1998|p=19}}

Fieldwork in the remote parts of the [[Great Basin]] during the 20th century brought the total number of species known to over 270, though some of this total may be errors or now extinct species.{{sfn|Way|James|1998|p=19}}