Chia

Salvia columbariae, commonly called chia or golden chia, is an erect, aromatic annual herb of the Lamiaceae native to dry slopes, washes, deserts and chaparral of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and northwestern Mexico, typically 10-50 cm tall. Stems are square in cross-section, simple or sparingly branched and sparsely pubescent. The basal leaves form a loose rosette and the cauline leaves are opposite and few; all leaves are pinnately to bipinnately divided into narrow, oblong, rugose, dark green segments 2-10 cm long, rough-hairy and densely glandular. The inflorescence is unmistakable: one to four widely spaced, ball-like terminal verticillasters 1.5-3 cm in diameter held on long bare scapose stems, each globular head densely packed with flowers and subtended by broad, ovate, sharply spinose, often violet-tinged bracts. The two-lipped tubular corolla is 7-10 mm long, pale to bright blue or violet-blue, with a hooded upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip; the two stamens are exserted. Nutlets are smooth, ovoid, tan to greyish, about 2 mm long and emit copious clear mucilage on contact with water. The species flowers in spring after rains and is the original native chia of the American Southwest.