Salvia dentata flowers in spaced whorls

Flowers appear at the stem-tips of Salvia dentata. Several multiflowered whorls of them grow spaced along the young upper stems.

The hairy, cylindrical, green bud cover is all calyx. The calyx elongates and opens its front end at the right moment for the blue, curving corolla blades to be expressed, almost extruded, before unfurling into a flower of considerable merit.

The bud loses its green innocence when thus matured, turning into soft purple particularly along its longitudinal ridges (Manning, 2009; Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist).