Lyreleaf Sage

Description

Botanical Name:    Salvia lyrata

Common Name:    Lyreleaf Sage

Description:    I love seeing this Florida native beauty pop up in my nativescaping! Everything from its bluish-lavender flowers to its purple-red leaf markings is lovely to me.

We start seeing lyreleaf sage’s flowers late winter to late spring. The two-lipped tubular blooms grow on leafless, square stems. Each bloom is about 1″ long. The leaves are low to the ground basal rosettes with irregular margins. It’s a perennial, which means it normally goes completely dormant in the winter but sometimes the basal rosette will stay green. A mature plant is 1-2 feet tall, with the basal rosette leaves spreading out about 1 foot wide. This fast grower likes to reseed itself. Deadheading the spent blooms will help to keep the spreading in check.

One cool thing about this plant is it tolerates mowing. So if it’s growing in your grass areas, just let it be and you’ll get pretty flowers along with the grass.

Plant in sun, part sun, part shade areas of your garden. It likes moist to dry, well-drained sand, clay, or loamy soils. It tolerates both periodic drought and flooding, which makes it a very versatile plant. Its native habitat is in open woods, alluvial areas, and wet to dry meadows.

The flowers are mainly pollinated by bees, but it also attracts butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators. Is a host plant to Wavy-lined emerald moth and the Hermit sphinx moth.  Deer resistant.

The leaves, stems, and flowers are edible. The somewhat minty tasting leaves can be brewed as a tea. It has also been used as a medicinal plant. As usual, please do your own thorough research before eating any wild plant.

Salt/brackish water flooding tolerance is low. Moderate to low tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray.

Plant Lore:  The common name “lyreleaf sage” comes from the lyre-shaped leaves.

This plant in 1-gallon containers is 3 – 15 inches tall.

Florida Hardiness Zone 8 – 10