IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 141 
HYPTIS SPP. 
The genus Hyptis is primarily Mexican and South American. 
Emory bushmint ({Hyptis emoryi, syns. 7. lanata and Mesosphae- 
rum emoryt), also known as bee sage and mountain sage is the only 
western species, and is further the only shrubby United States species 
of the genus. It is a lavender-scented, scurfy woolly shrub 3 to 6, 
rarely 12, feet high, growing on rocky gravelly slopes, ravines, desert 
valleys, alluvial deposits and the like, mainly in the covillea belt, at 
1,500 to 5,000 feet, from Lower California and the Mohave Desert 
region of southeastern California to south-central Arizona and south 
into Mexico. It is fair, sometimes fairly good, goat, sheep, and 
cattle browse. 
SAGES AND SALYVIAS (SALVIA SPP.) 
Sage, in usual western parlance, is a species of the composite genus 
Artemisia. Salvia, however, of the mint family, is the genus to 
which the true sages belong. At least 29 of the true sage species 
that are found in the West are distinctly shrubby, nearly ali of these 
occurring in California and the Southwest. ‘They are essentially 
aromatic plants of warm dry sunny foothills and desert regions. A 
number are rather important secondary browse species, and they are 
famous honey plants, especially in California, rivaling clover and 
linden in quality of product (97). At least three of these native 
western shrubby sages are cultivated as ornamentals. 
White sage (S. apiana, syns. Audibertia polystachya Benth., Ra- 
mona polystachya (Benth.) Greene, not S. polystachya Ortega, of 
Mexico), known also as bee sage, greasewood, and white bee sage, 
is a white-leaved, white-flowered shrub 3 to 10 feet high, common 
and widespread at low elevations in southern California and north- 
ern Lower California. It furnishes some winter browse and is one 
of the chief sages of the apiculturists; the seeds are an important 
source of food among certain Indian tribes of the region. 
Desert sage (S. carnosa, syns. Audibertia incana Benth., #. incana 
(Benth.) Dougl., Audibertiella incana (Benth.) Briq., not S. encana 
Mart. and Gal., of Mexico, Audibertiella argentea Rydb., not the 
cultivated ornamental silver sage, S. argentea L., of the Mediter- 
ranean region) is often called blue sage. It is much the most widely 
distributed of all the shrubby western sages and is often common 
and abundant, ranging at low elevations on dry open plains, largely 
in covillea, sagebrush, and juniper-pifon types, from Washington to 
Utah, Arizona, and California. It is a low, spreading bush about 9 
to 30 inches high, with showy blue flowers. Its palatability in the 
Great Basin region is low, but it has some worth on winter range 
toward the southern limits of its distribution. 
Whiteleaf sage (S. leucophylla, syns. Audibertia nivea Benth., 
FR. nivea (Benth.) Briq., not S. ntvea Thunb., of South Africa) is 
the common white sage of the apiarists and is also called snowy sage 
and purple sage. 
Black sage (S. mellifera, syns. Audibertia stachyoides Benth., 2. 
stachyoides (Benth.) Briq., not S. stachyoides H. B. K., of Mexico), 
occasionally known also as ball, blue, and button sage, is, according 
to Pellett (97), the principal source of sage honey and probably the 
best honey plant of the Pacific Coast. These two sages are exceed- 
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