Hawaiin 'sage' falsely accused on two counts

Lepechinia hastata

This plant is not a salvia, and not from Hawaii. Regular readers will know I like to dispel a myth, or preferably a pair of them. In his case the common name False Sage gives half the game away. 

The botanical name, Lepechinia hastata*, confirms it is not a Salvia and tells you the plant has spearhead- or arrow-shaped leaves with the base of them a bit pointy and spreading away from the attachment point (and that the author wanted to honour eighteenth-century Russian botanist, Ivan Ivanovich Lepechin, who died two years before this plant was named in 1804).  

Lepechinia hastata

Nothing here about its natural distribution, which is Baja California and Baja California Sur on the west side of Mexico, including a few Mexican Islands further west. But not as far west as Hawaii. Despite some references to it being native there, I understand it is a naturalised invasive in the USA.

Lepechinia hastata is also known as the Island Pitcher Sage or Baja Pitcher Sage. The island reference should be to the Mexican Revillagigedo Islands.

The leaves are grey, and very salvia(sage)-like in colour and texture, making it perfect for our Grey Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where I took these photographs in early June.

Lepechinia hastata

The early winter flowers, a welcome splash of colour anywhere in the Gardens.

Lepechinia hastata

The 45 or so Lepechinia species are known generally as the Pitcher Sages, due to the shape of their flowers. If you are looking to see how they differ from true Salvia, that's a good place to start. The flower is more like a trumpet, or pitcher, not with the top end helmet-like on one side and a bit wavy or creased on the other.  

You can compare it with this stunning salvia in flower at the same time over near the National Herbarium of Victoria. It's Salvia madrensis, also from Mexico, across the Gulf of California in the Sierra Madre Occidental range. 

Salvia madrensis

This brightly yellow-flowered species has the common name Forsyth Salvia, because in flower it looks like Forsythia, at least in colour and flower-mass. This species also grows in Hawaii, but no one tries to say it's from there originally.

The two genera also differ in the odour of the leaves, when crushed. From my assessment of these two examples, Lepechinia leaves have a grassy, mild mint or menthol odour (or perhaps 'pine-sap'), while the Salvia leaves have no obvious aroma other than a hint of culinary sage. 

A couple more pictures of the Forsyth Salvia to finish, showing its Forsythia-like spray of flowers and its non-hastate leaves.

Salvia madrensis

Salvia madrensis

*Jo, Curator of our Californian collection where we also have a plant labelled Lepechinia hastata, tells me there is some uncertainty about the identification of this species. It may be that both, or one of these plantings, is Lepechinia salviae from Chile. We'll be doing some further investigation.