PURPLE SAGE

This plant's common name is well known (e.g., "Riders of the Purple Sage," a popular western book written by Zane Grey). The botanical name of this plant, which is Salvia lecophylla, is not commonly mentioned in popular literature. 

I was really surprised to learn that this perennial shrub is native to the southern coastal mountain ranges of Southern California and Baja Sur California (in Mexico). It is, furthermore, commonly called the San Luis, California “purple sage,” even though it is not very purplish. [Note: it seems to me that the common name “purple sage,” has been over-used) for various species of Salvia].

Salvia lecuophylla is a shrub that can be up to 5 feet tall. Its leaves are light green in spring but turn grayish-white with maturity (when its branches arch toward the ground). Its flowers, which grow in tight whorls, are six to eight inches long. The flowers are white to pinkish-purple and in very widely spaced clusters of lowly elevated, somewhat inflated looking, gray spikes. The flowers can have a few thin threads. The leaves are light-green gray, thick, and pimply. Branches commonly arch toward the ground. [Note: When I returned to the exact same plant, one week later, most of the purple color was gone (those parts had fallen off), thus the plant could then be called the “gray sage.”]

This hardy plant is drought-tolerant and requires low maintenance. It thrives in full sun. It lives in USDA Zones 8-11. It can survive temperatures as low as 0-10 degrees F. It comes back every year, as it is a wood perennial plant. It can also survive with only sparse water. 

It also repels cockroaches (they do not like the “sage” smell). 

   Classification

Kingdom Plantae

Clades (4 of them)

Order Lamiales

Family Laminaceae (= the mint family)

Genus Salvia

Type Species S. leucophylla

There are many cultivares (variants) of this flower, including wild hybrids, thus making clear identification tricky.

Note: Salvia dorrii, which is native to the western-interior of the USA (including Utah), is possibly the plant that Zane Grey had in mind when he gave the title “Riders of the Purple Sage,” to his famous western novel (set in Utah). This novel was also the basis for a movie. He was not precise in the taxonomic usage of this plant, thus there has been on-going disagreement as to which species he had in mind.

                                                                  

Figure 1. A Salvia lecophylla plant (about 3 feet wide) that I found growing wild in Santa Clarita, Southern California. I initially had no idea as to the identification of this flower, and I was very surprised when it became evident that it belonged to the sage family.  

Figure 2. A closeup of a portion of the same plant as shown in Figure 1. Image also   taken on the same day (in early summer) as the one shown in Figure 1, above. One week later, I examined this same plant, and most of the purple color was "gone."