Salvia ballotiflora
Family: Lamiaceae
Plant Description: Deciduous shrub to 2 m high with ovate leaves 1-4 cm long, opposite, aromatic, margin toothed. Stems brittle. Flowers in short spikelike racemes. Corolla 1.3-1.6 cm long, blue or violet-blue, bilateral.
Plant Trivia: Spanish name translates to “sweet marjoram.”
Field Identification:
Occurrence: Frequent on caliche ridges or better drained sandy and clayey loams from western half of our counties.
Bloom Period: March-December
Plant Use: Excellent garden shrub in S. Texas
Key to species of Salvia:
- Corolla red……………………………………………………………………………….S. coccinea
Corolla blue or blue-violet…………………………………………………………………….2
2. Plant a shrub………………………………………………………………………S. ballotiflora
Plant an herb……………………………………………………………………………………………..3
3. Flower bracts leafy, exceeding calyxes…………………………………..S. texana
Flower bracts shorter than calyxes…………………………………….S. farinacea
stxflora 