Salvia leucantha

Salvia leucantha, commonly called Mexican bush sage, is a shrubby perennial native to Central America and Mexico. This sage is most noted for producing a beautiful late summer to frost bloom of showy bicolor flowers consisting of white corollas and longer-lasting funnel-form purple calyces. Flowers appear in dense, arching, terminal spikes (racemes to 10” long) that extend above the foliage. Flowers are attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. Linear, lance-shaped, gray-green leaves (to 4” long) are borne in pairs on square stems. The foliage has a velvet-like texture, hence the sometimes used common name of velvet sage for this species.