Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Lepechinia cardiophylla is a rare species of flowering plant in the Lamiaceae (Mint) family known by the common names Santa Ana Pitcher Sage and Heart-leaved Pitcher Sage. It is native to the Santa Ana Mountains of southern California and the coastal mountains of northern Baja California. Few populations of the plant are known and many of them are located in areas that are threatened by development and other human activity. This is an aromatic shrub with branching stems covered in resin glands. The hairy leaves are heart-shaped to oval-shaped and often toothed along the edges. The raceme flower cluster bears flowers on prominent pedicels. Each flower is a cuplike calyx of hairy sepals around a tubular white to lavender corolla. The corolla is curled back at the mouth into small lips. The fruit is a dark colored, hairless body a few millimeters long which develops within the calyx of sepals.

Plant type

Shrub

Size

5 ft Tall

Dormancy

Summer Semi-deciduous

Fragrance

Pleasant

Calscape icon
Color

Cream, White

Flowering season

Summer, Spring

Sun

Full Sun, Partial Shade

Cold tolerance

Tolerates cold to 0° F

Soil drainage

Fast

Soil description

Usually found on decomposed granite.

Site type

Chaparral and Cismontane Woodland in the foothills of Orange and San Diego Counties, often on north-facing slopes

Plant communities

Chaparral, Closed-cone Pine Forest, Foothill Woodland

Best used with other plants of the Santa Ana Mountains, such as Manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), Brickell Bush (Brickellia californica), Hoary Leaved Ceanothus (Ceanothus crassifolius), Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides), Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia spp.), Bush Poppy (Dendromecon rigida), Coffeeberry (Frangula spp.), Ashy Silktassel (Garrya flavescens), Tecate Cypress (Hesperocyparis forbesii), Chaparral Beard-tongue (Keckiella antirrhinoides), Foothill Penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus), Scrub Pine (Pinus attenuata), Inland Scrub Oak (Quercus berberidifolia), Evergreen Buckthorn (Rhamnus ilicifolia), White Flowering Currant (Ribes indecorum), White Sage (Salvia apiana), and Woolly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum)

Hummingbirds
Caterpillars
Butterflies

Butterflies and moths supported

0 confirmed and 2 likely

Confirmed Likely

Anoncia Sphacelina

Anoncia sphacelina

Anstenoptilia marmarodactyla