Salvia nemerosa

This is yet another plant I irrationally love.  When I walk by Salvia nemerosa or woodland sage, I can't resist taking a leaf and smelling it.  Like all species in the Salvia genus, the leaves are very aromatic, though cooking sage (Salvia officinalis) has much more aromatic and glaucous (gray) leaves.

That said, I love the somewhat acrid, medicinal smell of these leaves.  It smells sort of like a perm (for those of you who remember perms!).  I'm sure that my good association with this plant must go back to my high school days of working at a plant nursery.  I imagine that there was probably a day where I found out that the guy I liked liked me back and I happened to be at work deadheading salvias when I found out.  Something like that.  There has to be some primal scent connection for me to like this plant so much!

Salvia nemerosa is a popular perennial and if you do cut back the old flowers it can rebloom.  It's a clump forming plant but doesn't really take over an area the way Nepeta can.  They are related -- generally any plants with highly aromatic foliage are in the Lamiaceae or mint family.  Other characteristics in this family include bilaterally symmetrical flowers that appear in whorls around a spike and many members of this family have square stems.

It's hard to mention Salvia these days without addressing the stylish new drug - Salvia divinorum.  They are members of the same genus, but woodland sage won't give you the same psychedelic experience as Salvia divinorum.

Mormon Tea, or Ephedra

I saw this small, raggedy shrub all around the edges of the Grand Canyon and it was part of the reason I was compelled to quickly find some decent books detailing the flora of the region.  To me, it closely resembled Cytisus, but as it turns out it was an altogether new genus for me, Ephedra.

The genus name should sound familiar, since when one gets congested it's likely they are buying a product with pseudoephedrine in it.  Of course, if you buy too much pseudoephedrine, you may be flagged as a potential drug dealer, since the drug is often used to make methamphetamine.

The Chinese Ephedra (E. sinica) is perhaps the most notorious; it has the alkaloids pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, both of which have been marketed as 'herbal remedies.'  These products were often abused by athletes as stimulants to enhance performance.  Most notably, Ephedra was linked to the deaths of Baltimore Oriole Steve Bechler and Minnesota Viking Korey Stringer.  Many sports leagues, and ultimately the FDA, have banned the use of Ephedra.   

This native species E. trifurca is less potent than E. sinica, but was still used by southwestern settlers as a tonic, tea, diuretic and decongestant.  It was even used to treat syphilis (though I'm not sure how effective it was).  Mormons, who abstain from caffeinated beverages, often drank the brew made from this plant thus accounting for Ephedra's common name - Mormon tea.

Ephedra is derivative of the ancient Greek work for horse's tail - 'Hippuris.'  I have no idea what trifurca means!