Texas sage

Salvia coccinea, the scarlet sage, blood sage or tropical sage, is an herbaceous perennial (often grown as an annual) of the Lamiaceae native to the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America, where it inhabits open pinelands, oak hammocks, roadsides and disturbed clearings. It grows 60-120 cm tall from a fibrous root system, with square, softly hairy stems and opposite, long-petioled, ovate to deltoid leaves 3-7 cm long, having rounded-crenate margins, a hairy underside and a faint herbaceous fragrance. From spring through autumn, terminal racemes 10-25 cm long bear whorls of two to six flowers; each two-lipped tubular corolla is 18-30 mm long, typically bright scarlet (though pink, coral and white forms exist), with a short hooded upper lip and a broad spreading lower lip pollinated by hummingbirds and butterflies. The persistent, ribbed, hairy calyx becomes inflated in fruit and encloses four small, smooth nutlets. The species reseeds prolifically and is widely grown as an ornamental, escaping into warm-temperate and tropical habitats worldwide.