WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Branching square stems reach 18 inches tall topped with paired blue, tubular flowers. Note the whorls of flowers are widely separated on a leafless stem and have white spots, and the leaves have sawtooth margins.

FLOWER: August–September. Whorled clusters of paired flowers are widely separated nodes on the stem. Flowers blue-purple, tubular, 1/2-inch long (12 mm), mostly enclosed in the sepals (calyx) except for the 2 lips; lower lip has a white patch, 2 rounded lobes, droops downward, and is much longer than upper lip. The calyx that cups the tubular flower is covered with long, gland-tipped hairs.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades oblong to lance-shaped, 3/4–5 5/8-inches long (2–6 cm); base tapering, tip pointed, margins lined with irregular deep teeth.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, rocky soils, meadows, drainages, roadsides, grasslands, open woodlands; desert scrub and grasslands, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,225–8,150 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM

SIMILAR SPECIES: Lanceleaf Sage, S. reflexa, in much the same range and habitat, has leaves with entire to shallowly toothed, margins, and flowers without white spots.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Curry, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance.