Mealy sage

Salvia farinacea Benth. (Lamiaceae), mealy sage or mealycup sage, is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial native to limestone prairies, rocky open woods and roadsides of central and western Texas, southern New Mexico and adjacent northeastern Mexico. From a woody base it produces numerous erect, square stems 30-90 cm tall that are minutely white-mealy in their upper parts. The opposite, short-petioled leaves are lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 3-8 cm long, with shallowly toothed or nearly entire margins, green above and grey-pubescent beneath, and aromatic when crushed. Slender terminal spike-like racemes 10-25 cm long bear whorls of small two-lipped flowers, the corollas 10-15 mm long and typically a clear violet-blue with the throat and calyx covered in a characteristic white mealy pubescence; cultivated forms range from deep blue to pure white. Nutlets are smooth, dark brown and ovoid. It is widely grown as a long-flowering ornamental, including the popular cultivar 'Victoria'.