Scientific Name: Agastache wrightii
Common Name: Sonoran Giant Hyssop
Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Upland, Mountain. This plant grows in canyons and on slopes in grassy oak and pine woodlands or chaparral in upland areas and at lower elevations in the mountains.
Flower Color: Blue to violet-blue
Flowering Season: Summer, Fall. This wildflower blooms after the summer monsoon rains have begun.
Height: Up to 2 feet (60 cm) tall
Description: The tiny flowers are in interrupted whorls along long, slender, erect flower spikes. The individual flowers are tubular and have a 2-lobed upper lip and a 3-lobed lower lip. The flowers are followed by small, brown, oblong nutlets that are tipped with small hairs. The leaves are bright green above, paler and grayer green below, triangular to lance-shaped, serrate to toothed, point-tipped, petioled, 1 1/2 to 2 times longer than wide, and in a basal rosette at the base of the plant and paired opposite on the stems. The stems are erect to sprawling, light green in color, and covered with short, fine gray-white hairs.
The similar White Giant Hyssop (Agastache micrantha) has white flowers and leaves that are 2 1/2 to 3 times longer than wide. All the other Agastache species found here in southeastern Arizona have much larger, showier flowers.
Fragrant – The plants are pleasantly aromatic.
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Family: Lamiaceae – Mint family
Genus: Agastache Clayton ex Gronov. – giant hyssop
Species: Agastache wrightii (Greenm.) Woot. & Standl. – Sonoran giant hyssop
More About This Plant