Black sage

Salvia mellifera, the black sage, is an aromatic evergreen subshrub in the Lamiaceae endemic to coastal sage scrub and chaparral of California and northern Baja California, where it is one of the dominant components of the soft chaparral. Plants form rounded mounds 0.5 to 2 metres tall with rather brittle, square stems that turn dark grey-brown with age, giving the species its common name. The opposite, short-petiolate leaves are oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 2 to 7 centimetres long, dark green and rugose-bullate above with conspicuously impressed veins, paler and finely pubescent beneath, with crenulate margins and a strongly resinous-sage scent on crushing. Pale blue, lavender or nearly white two-lipped flowers about 8 to 12 millimetres long are densely clustered into one to several whorled, ball-like verticillasters spaced along the upper stem, each whorl subtended by sharp-pointed purple-tinged bracts. The fruit consists of four small smooth nutlets enclosed within the persistent five-toothed calyx. The plant produces important nectar flows and is a major source of California sage honey.