This western annual has been found established in a few counties. I found it to be well established in sandy soil in a barnyard about half a mile northeast of Leiter's Ford in Fulton County, and in a sandy truck garden along the Wabash River in Gibson County.
Duration: Annual
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Annual of varying habit, aromatic, without punctate-glandular leaves and flowers, stems square, sometimes tinged deep purple, herbage puberulent to somewhat glabrous.
Leaves: Opposite, lanceolate to oblong-linear, margins with entire or serrulate, petioles 2-20 mm long.
Flowers: Blue or bluish- white, borne in interrupted spikes in verticels of 2 opposite flowers, sometimes in leaf axils, the corolla strongly 2-lipped with the upper lip helmet-shaped, entire or 2-lobed, the lower lip spreading or drooping and 3-lobed. Calyx lobes bilabiate, persistent. 2 fertile stamens inserted in the tube of the corolla.
Fruits: Four smooth nutlets.
Ecology: Found on plains, mesas, rocky slopes, and open pine forest, from 4,000-7,000 ft (1219-2134 m); flowering July-October.
Notes: The keys to this species are the annual habit, the lack of glandular-punctate vegetation, the blue or bluish-white flowers,the calyx lobes 2-lipped with with 12-13 ridges (nerves), the stamens inserted in the upper lip of the corolla, and the mostly linear-lanceolate leaves. Also look for this species in disturbed areas, roadsides, and pastures. The key to distinguishing between Salvia and Stachys is that Stachys has four stamens and a regular calyx, while Salvia has 2 stamens and the calyx is bilabiate.
Ethnobotany: There is no specific use recorded for this species, but the genus was used as an infusion to treat measles, and eaten raw for kidney troubles.
Synonyms: Salvia lancifolia
Etymology: Salvia comes from the Latin salveo, "I am well," and an herb, Salvia, used for healing, while reflexa means bent sharply backwards.
Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011
Branching annual 3-6 dm, the stem with minute recurved hairs; principal petioles 8-20 mm; lvs lance-linear to lanceolate, 3-5 cm נ4-12 mm, entire or with a few low teeth, gradually narrowed to the base; racemes erect, 5-10 cm, the internodes 8-15 mm; bracteal lvs lance- linear, 1-3 mm; fls 2(4) per node; cal at anthesis 6-7 mm, minutely hairy on the nerves only, the upper lip entire, 5-nerved, half as long as the tube; cor blue, 8-12 mm, the tube no longer than the cal; 2n=20. Dry sandy or gravelly soil of hillsides and prairies; O. to Io. and Mo., w. to N.C., Utah, and Mex., and sometimes adventive eastward. (S. lanceifolia, misapplied; S. lanceolata)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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