Salazaria

PLANT: Shrubs 35 100( 150) cm high, often broader than tall, pubescent; stems much branched; lateral branches often clustered, divaricate, with rigid, spinose tips. LEAVES: sessile to short petiolate, 3 25 mm long, 2 8 mm wide; blade narrowly ovate to elliptic or lanceolate; margin entire; base tapering. INFLORESCENCE: racemose; bracts reduced or absent; flowers 1 per axil. FLOWERS: pedicellate; calyx strongly zygomorphic, tan to purplish, the 2 lips rounded and entire, the basal portion in fruit much inflated, bladder like, 14 20 mm long, approaching spherical; corolla zygomorphic, 10 25 mm long, the tube exceeding calyx, the upper lip whitish and hooded, the lower lip 3 lobed with its central lobe dark purple with a central white line; stamens 4, included in hood, the longer pair of stamens with 1 anther sac strongly reduced or abortive, the anther sacs slightly divaricate, blue, ciliate along margins and with sac like glandular hairs around connective; ovary stalked, deeply lobed; stigma with one lobe nearly obsolete, appearing pointed. NUTLETS: broadly ovoid, 2 3 mm long, glabrous, irregularly papillate, olive green, on a stalk ca. 2 mm long. NOTES: A monotypic genus. (for José Salazar, Mexican astronomer and diplomat). REFERENCES: Walters, Gretchen M. 2003. Lamiaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 35(2).