Sky Island Whispered in my ear

SKY ISLAND WHISPERED in my ear

Sky Island, whispered in my ear, "i want you back." She is sweet with Cliff rose, aweets' al, her baby's cradle, blooming now. Her hair is the color of sunset, like ocotillo flowers,

the way water on sunlight catches your eye. Her hair sways in the wind and the bees are eager to taste her nectar.

Her arm pits are spicy with estafiate, bitter cherry and narrow leaf cottonwood. Her arms are aspen thin and strong, in late September

her hillsides are yellow with the leaves of osha and

aralia.

 Her kiss is bitter not easily given and not soon forgotten like the yellow inner bark of Mahonia.

 My mouth waters with aristolochia, I want to move and walk. I see far away, eyes and mouth cool and moist, the narrow leaf yucca across the canyon moving, behind me the

last of saguaro alone near the ridge, just below the two oaks.

She told me she is waiting with ceanothus, red root and choke cherry. She always makes promises like that, "'I'll give you this and that. Come take me, come inside, I'm yours.' "Jealous at times she won't let me return home, so i am dizzy and lost unable to go ahead or behind. Tired worn out and spent. I wish sometimes she would leave me alone so i could go back to Phoenix

 and see the bright lights of town. But as soon as I go back, she's there again, burning me with her eyes, sharp bitter burning like Anenome tuberosa, 

through the bones of my face, calling, "Come back. Come back to me.".
I go back to her, she is waiting like Mother Mary at the tomb. 

Waiting on the morning of the Pasch.
by Paul Manski

Salvia pinguifolia

Spending time with another somewhat neglected  Lamiaceae or mint family plant,

Salvia pinguifolia, the Latin refers to Salvia the ability to save and the grease-leaf due to the texture of the Deltoid leaf which is covered with fine and coarse hairs when viewed with a loupe, hairy Rock sage, (formerly and concurrently known as Salvia ballotiflora var. pinguifolia). Its a perennial shrub here growing about 5 feet tall. It attracts many pollinators bees and butterflies, and sight of the plant is accompanied by a buzzing sound that says, abundance. It's a plant that describes a broader desert and like ocotillo moves thru the Mohave, Sonoran Chihuahua and trans-pecos bioregion.

     It's presentation is a lot like Hyptis emoryi but Hyptis has a more concave spoon shaped leaf & it's flowers are not like Hyptis in whorls, the bright purple lower corolla lip is striking.

      As a medicine it has warming astringent aromatics with a lavender like quality pronounced in the rich purple flowers. It would translate well into a warm gargle for sore throats. It also the mental clarity of desert lavender waking and invigorating the senses. It combines well with Encelia farinosa for asthmatic seasonal wheezing and chewing on the flowers produces a drying of secretions in the mucosa. It is a wonderful under used abundant Salvia that connects well with the bioregional herbalist.