Salvia leucophylla

Purple Sage, Gray Sage
Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Evergreen, Shrubs

SALVIA

All sages have square stems and whorls of two-lipped flowers, either distinctly spaced along flower stalks or so tightly crowded that they look like one dense spike; some species have branched inflorescences. Flower colors range from white and yellow through salmon and pink to scarlet and pure red, from pale lavender to true blue and darkest purple. A few sages have fragrant blossoms. Many have aromatic foliage. Sages attract hummingbirds, bees, butterflies.

Salvia leucophylla

Graceful plant to 3–5 ft. high with equal or greater width; arching branches have upturned tips, root where they touch soil. Stems and foliage thickly covered with fine white hairs. Wrinkled, oblong to lanceshaped leaves to 3 in. long are apple green when they emerge, turn whiter as days get hotter. In spring, each 6–8-in. stem carries three to five tightly packed whorls of 1-in., pinkish purple flowers with gray calyxes.

'Figueroa'

To 3–4 ft. tall and twice as wide,is especially silvery; toleratesdrought, heat, cold.

'Point Sal Spreader'

Prostrate, 1–2 1/2 ft. high,10–12 ft. wide; has broader,grayer leaves than species.