Edwards Plateau/Hill Country Plant Id - Mealy Blue Sage

I cannot post a picture because I don have a camera and this plant does not bloom until Sep/Oct. It has a blue bloom that is mistaken for a bluebonnet, but it might be a little straighter. The leaves are not the leaves of a Lupine.

It is possibly an annual wildflower. The leaves are soft, lance like, pale green, not shiny, and radiate from a single stem but there may be more than one stem.

Any suggestions?

Knowing what conditions the plant grows in could help narrow down the identity. Things like morning, full, afternoon sun. How much moisture. Type of soil and soil ph.

There's a lot of native wild flowers with a form vaguely similar to the bluebonnet. Most of them are spring bloomers, but in odd weather sometime you can get fall outlier of a typical spring flower. There are even a lot of 'summer' flowers from gardens that would go semidormant due to our summer temps and then bloom when it starts to cool off.


We do have local resources that might be good options. Lady Bird Wild Flower Center is based in Austin, and should know if it's a native. There are also a lot of decent nurseries where the employees would probably be able to tell you if it's a commonly planted garden plant.

I had a medium sized list of plants that at least vaguely resemble the bluebonnet, but in considering it I think it might be less than helpful.

It only grows in a relatively small area on our property. I tried to save it the first year, but it was growing on our parking area so even though I flagged it people keep running over it. This year there is one growing where I might be able to save it and two very small ones in the gravel drive where I am going to try and dig up when it gets a little drier.

Soil is sandy and rocky, I believe it is alkaline as we only have juniper and oak trees (but none where it grows), full sun all day, no shade, and I would say it is drought resistant as it only get wet when it rains. It has never bloomed except in the fall. I have also seen it on the highway. It is a wildflower as no one planted them. The only people that I know lived here before us were the indians of long ago.

Blooming in the fall is what is making it had for me to identify. I have been using the Lady Bird Johnson wildflower.org; davesgarden.com; I have the Loughmiller "Texas Wildflowers" and a great "North American Wildlife" Guide to 2000 plants and animals.

Some of the plants I have been considering: Skullcap, lanceleaf heal all, Blue Lobelia, downingia, purple loosestrifes, germanders, toadflax, camases. It seems to look a lot like mealy blue sage. Since I have never seen any of these plants it is hard to say that it is any of them. And most of them bloom in the spring.

Have you looked at pictures of Liatris? Another common name for it is gayfeather. It's more of a purple than blue, but it's a highly drought tolerant perrenial wildflower with a tall purple spire that only appears in the fall. Mine has just started to put up it's grassy foliage in the last couple of weeks.

Yes, I have looked at the Liatris. It is possible that it is a variation of it. This picture looks a lot like the plant except the leaves are too narrow and maybe too stiff.

Plant of liatris punctata var. mucronata

The flower spike does not have the star shape that many of the Liatris have. According to Loughmiller's book, the petal's are "two lipped" and the leaves are "Linear" rather than "Lanceolate". The plant is only about 24" including the flower head which might be 6 - 7".

I found three more plants growing out from the foundation by our front door. I hope to be able to move them to my perennial bed today. I have only tried to transplant verbena without success.

The liatris I'm familiar with is a little lusher (wider, long, light green leaves)

Penstemon have a two lip structure and they're common in the hill country. They usually start blooming earlier in the season, but maybe under such harsh conditions they waited till the fall rains arrived. They come in virtually every color.

That exhausts my knowledge of blueish wildflowers that are summer/fall bloomers. Sorry, I'm the first person in my family who devotes any attention to flowers. I'm drawing from a relatively small knowledge base.

I appreciate the help. When we first saw these it was after a rainy fall in 2013. We thought they were blue bonnets and that the rain had forced them to bloom until I realized that they had the wrong leaves.

Penstemon filiformis is similar just not right leaf or flower.

I wish it grew somewhere other than my driveway. I feel I need to give it a proper home.

The liatris I'm familiar with is a little lusher (wider, long, light green leaves)

That is how I would describe this plant to the picture I posted, but I would add that the leaves bend downward and are soft.

Okay, the one that I grow is liatris spicata and I think it's the most common.

Nice thing about it is that not only does it grow relatively easily from seed, it produces a corm that should be relatively easy to transplant.

Is this a better match? By this point I'm going to do a dance of excitement when you do identify your plant.

Well am I surprised to say the least. I waded across the mud, luckily it didn't stick to my shoes and there are three nice plants. They are about 12" across and 8" tall and all three have lots of abt 3" seed heads on them. The stems are a gray looking and the seed heads have a slight gray purple tint. The stems bend downward so you don't see the seed heads until you are looking down on the plant. Looks kind of like something I think I saw today. I wonder how long it will take them to bloom? They look rather immature. I flagged them as they are not visible from the driveway which is about 5" away.

I don't think these plants are the one I am looking for. I will just wait until Sep/Oct to see if it comes back. I did weed around the three plants and dug up the plant in the driveway. I thought it was two but turned out to be one, but it is not the same as the other three plants. This one has very small daisy looking buds under the leaves. I planted it in the perennial bed and will see what happens. Thanks for the help.

Could it be blue mealy sage? It seems to fit the description, though I've seen it bloom from spring all the way into late fall/early winter.

It does slightly resemble Mealy Blue, just not sure about the leaves. Our daughter was here yesterday later when we were coming back from errands she pointed to a plant on the side of the road and said it was lavender. It looks like the plant but I don't remember a smell.

I appreciate all the help.

This newly discovered plant is not lavender as it has no smell, but from my research it looks like the mealy blue that Bakers Creek calls Blue Bedder Salvia. And it fits the discription.

Blue Bedder Salvia

I am still hoping to find the other plant in the fall as it isn't the same. Here are some great websites that I found that I want to share:

Deer Resistant Landscape Design

Grow Green Landscape Resources