Penstemon digitalis which repeat with two flowers multiple times. The pedicels are almost one fourth of an inch long and produce 1.25 inch long two-lipped tubular flowers over dark green foliage. The plant has elliptic basal leaves and lance-shaped to oblong stem leaves. It is called beardtongue because the plant has a fifth stamen which resembles a hairy beard due to having small hairs. "Penstemon" is a combination of the Greek words, "penta", "five" and "stemon", referring to the stamen, every flower containing five stamens. Four of the stamens are fertile while the fifth one is sterile. The Latin word "digitalis" means
Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant of substantial contamination from the 1957 plutonium fire until after the highly visible 1969 fire, when civilian monitoring teams confronted government officials with measurements made outside the plant of radioactive contamination suspected to be from the 1969 fire, which consumed hundreds of pounds of plutonium (850 kg). The 1969 fire raised public awareness of potential hazards posed by the plant and led to years of increasing citizen protests and demands for plant closure. Releases from previous years had not been reported publicly prior to the fire; airborne-become-groundborne radioactive contamination extending well beyond the Rocky Flats plant was not publicly reported