WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This woody low shrub reaches 5 feet tall with grayish-hairy twigs and leaves. Note the rounded to triangular, scalloped, aromatic leaves, and the blue to purple tubular flowers that barely extend beyond the calyx lobes cupping the petals.

FLOWER: August-December. Flowers in dense spike-like clusters to 3 inches long (8 cm); flowers tubular 1/4-inch long (5–8 mm), petals blue to purple; lower lip droops and is slightly longer than the hairy upper lip. The bell-shaped calyx has hairy, rounded lobes with a slight tip.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades grayish-green, broad, 3/4–2-inches (2–5 cm) wide and long; margins lined with coarse, rounded teeth, surfaces hairy.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils, slopes, canyons; pinyon-juniper, oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,500–7,600 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 12 species of Salvia in NM, 2 shrubs and 8 forbs with blue flowers. The only other woody shrubby species, Canyon Sage, S. lycioides, in much the same range, has oblong to elliptic leaves mostly without teeth.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Catron, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro.