[4] Salvia polystachia grows up to 3–9 ft (1–3 m) in one season, preferring the shelter of other plants because the stems become very brittle.

It blooms in late summer or early fall, with 0.5 in (13 mm) flowers that are violet-blue at the edge and fading to white at the center.

Many short and slender spikes with verticils of tightly held flowers give the plant its specific epithet polystachia.

[1][6][7] In 1798, Casimiro Gómez Ortega published a description of the species which explicitly referred to Cavanilles' name, but spelt the epithet polystachya.

[3] To add to the potential confusion, in 1844, Martin Martens and Henri Guillaume Galeotti published the name Salvia polystachya for a different species.