Salvia mohavensis

Mohave sage

Family: Lamiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Mohave sage is a California native shrub found in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert's Whipple Mountains in dry, rocky slopes, blackbrush scrub, and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 300 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to October, this plant produces sky-blue to dark blue flowers in showy white to dark blue papery bracts that are generally 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. Growing as a compact shrub less than 1 meter tall with minute simple hairs, it develops erect stems with distinctive foliage. Its leaves are lance-oblong to ovate, 1.5 to 2 centimeters long, with small rounded teeth and a puckered surface that ranges from tapered to slightly truncate at the base. Some specimens feature glandular hairs on leaves and stems, adding to the plant's subtle textural complexity.

Habitat: Locally common, dry, rocky slopes, blackbrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Oct

Elevation: 300-1500 m

Bioregions: DMoj (exc n&ampw), DSon (Whipple Mtns)

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.