Leaves oblong-lanceolate (much longer than wide, wider at the base, with nearly parallel margins), obtuse or rounded tip, leaves and upper stem tomentose (woolly) and greyish white, surface rugose (crinkled or wrinkled), undersides paler than top sides, margins crenulate (small rounded teeth), base truncate (straight as though cut off), prominent veins, ~2-6 cm long, ~0.75- 1.25 cm wide, on a petiole (leaf-stalk) ~3-8 mm long. Flowers pale lavender and densely packed into compact round whorls ~2-4 cm across. Each corolla tube is ~0.6-1.3 cm long, split into 2 irregular lips, the upper one with 1-2 lobes, the lower one with 3 uneven lobes, and the stamens and style are exserted (stick out) past the corolla. The round whorls are spaced about 3-6 cm apart on a ~15-30 cm long axillary stem (stem comes out of a leaf node). Each whorl of flowers has a whorl of elliptical (oval) or ovate (egg-shaped) leaf-like bracts ~1 cm long immediately under it. Flowers May to July. Fruit is a mottled nutlet ~3-3.5 mm long. Plant is a shrub 1-1.5 m high, densely branched with both erect and sprawling, prostrate stems. It favors dry, open hillsides in California sage scrub from ~50-800 m in elevation. It is found along the Central California coast, the southern Coast Ranges, the Transverse Ranges, and the South Coast from Santa Barbara into northern Baja.
Salvia leucophylla (Lamiaceae aka Labiatae): purple sage
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.