page_title: Salvia azurea
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Salvia azurea / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Self made scan of the seeds of Salvia azurea.
context_page_description: Salvia azurea, the azure blue sage, azure sage, blue sage or prairie sage, is a herbaceous perennial in the genus Salvia that is native to Central and Eastern North America.
context_section_description: Its thin, upright stems can grow to 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, with narrow, pointed, smooth-edged to serrated, furry to smooth green leaves, connected to their stems by petioles to 0.4 inches (1.0 cm) long. There are no basal leaves.
  The blue flowers (rarely white), nearly ¹⁄₄ to ¹⁄₂ inch (6.4 to 12.7 mm) long, appear summer to autumn near the ends of their branched or unbranched spikes; their calyxes are tubular or bell-shaped and furry. Two varieties are known, Salvia azurea var. azurea (azure sage) and Salvia azurea var. grandiflora (Pitcher sage).
  The stems of wild S. azurea tend to be long and unbranched, causing them to flop under the weight of their flowers. When grown in cultivation, the stems of S. azurea are sometimes cut back early in the growing season to encourage branching and slow the vertical growth of the plant to prevent lodging.
caption: Seeds
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