General: Death Valley Sage (Salvia funerea) is a rounded, upright shrub with opposite leaves that are white-woolly and spine tipped. Flowers occur along the stem, with one to several purple flowers per leaf axil.

Death Valley Sage is an uncommon component of vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils in washes and on upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zone, but only in the Death Valley area.

Family: Mint (Lamiaceae).

Other Names: woolly sage

Plant Form: upright, spreading shrub.

Height: Usually about knee-high; to about 4 feet.

Bark:

Stems: Square in cross section.

Leaves: Oblong to oval, to 3/4 inch long; tipped with a spine; covered in dense, woolly hairs.

Flowers: Blooms summer through fall. Inflorescence: flowers along the stem with one to several flowers per leaf axil. Flowers purple, corolla tube with 2 lips. Upper lip with two lobes, lower lip larger than upper lip, spreading, and with three lobes.

Seeds: Fruit: Small brown nutlet.

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: About 0 to 1,000 feet.

Distribution: Death Valley region.

Comments: This species is uncommon.