Rank Species | Higher classification Sage | |
Similar Sage, Lamiaceae, Salvia argentea, Salvia microphylla, Salvia greggii | ||
Monarch butterfly on salvia azurea
Salvia azurea, the azure blue sage, azure sage, blue sage or prairie sage, is a herbaceous perennial in the genus Salvia that is native to Central and Eastern North America.
Contents
Salvia azurea
Description
Its thin, upright stems can grow to 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, with narrow, pointed, smooth-edged to serrated, furry to smooth green leaves, connected to their stems by petioles to 0.4 inches (1.0 cm) long. There are no basal leaves.
The blue flowers (rarely white), nearly 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch (6.4 to 12.7 mm) long, appear summer to autumn near the ends of their branched or unbranched spikes; their calyxes are tubular or bell-shaped and furry. Two varieties are Salvia azurea var. azurea (azure sage) and Salvia azurea var. grandiflora (pitcher sage). It is found on the wild on roadsides, glades, fields and pastures.
