Salazaria mexicana
Mohave Co., AZ
Apr 1980

Salazaria mexicana
Clark Co., NV
May 2006

Salazaria mexicana Shrubland Alliance
Kern Co.: Southern Sierra Nevada, Pacific Crest Trail, east of Tehachapi, 2 km east of Cameron Exit off Hwy 58, 4,000 ft.

Salazaria mexicana
Mohave Co., near Kingman, AZ
Spjut 16046; Sep 2006
Also showing close-up of a
dicelarium opened up, revealing two mericarps

Salazaria mexicana
San Bernardino Co., Mesquite Mts., CA
Spjut 16036; Sep 2006

Trees and Shrubs of Kern County (Jan 2013)

Salazaria mexicana Torrey 1859 [Scutellaria mexicana (Torrey) A. J. Patton 1990]. Bladder sage, paper bag bush.  Intricately branched shrub arising from a much-branched underground stem-root complex (rhizome) that spreads close to the surface, leafless much of the year, to 1.5 m high and broad, branches often at right angles, ending in a sharp point; flowering after rain, but normally in the spring, flowers small, purple; fruit balloon-like (diclesarium), an inflated calyx enclosing 4 mericarps (“nutlets” in the literature). Characteristic of the yucca and Joshua tree zone on rocky soils, especially along washes, centering in the Mojave Desert, to Utah, Texas, and northern Mexico. Type from “Ravines, Chihuahua, below Presidio del Norte near the Rio Grande.”  Bladder sage scrub recognized in MCV2 when ≥2% absolute cover in the shrub canopy and <50% relative cover for other shrubs except Salvia dorrii. Kern Co.: Mojave Desert region to eastern Sierra Nevada, 1,761–1,521 m (CCH).  Unlike other members of the mint family, bladder sage lacks the strong mint odor that is typical of the family, and also the sharply angled (square) stems.  The related genus Scutellaria differs in the herbaceous habit and in the fruiting calyx, which splits rather than inflates, upon maturity, the fruit regarded as a trymarium (Spjut 1994).