Range
Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Mojave deserts of southern California, Nevada, southern Utah, southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico.
Habitat
Sandy slopes and open desert areas below 4,000 feet.
Flowers
Small, purple or deep blue flowers with prominent upper and lower lips bloom March through June at the top of leafless stems. Flowers are 1/2 inch long in dense, rounded clusters emerging from terminal spikes. After the blossoms have passed, the dried stems and heads shake out an abundance of small, gray seeds.
Description
Chia a common name often used for several Salvia species and is sometimes confused with the variety of sages of the same genus.This unbranched annual grows 6 to 18 inches high. Like most members of the Mint (Labiatae) Family, Chia has square stems. They grow from green, oblong, mostly basal, many-lobed leaves about 4 inches long.
For centuries Chia was of great economic importance to Native Americans of the Southwest and California coast. The parched seeds of the Chia were ground to make the staple flour, pinole. Indians also placed the seeds in water to make mucilaginous poultices and beverages.
One tablespoon of chia seeds mixed in water was reputed to be sufficient nutrition to sustain for 24 hours, an Indian on a forced march. This cooling drink was also famous for assuaging a desperate thirst. An infusion of the seeds was valued by Spanish Missionaries as a fever remedy and as a poultice for gunshot wounds.
-- A.R Royo
Chia
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