Botanical name: Varronia curassavica    Family: Boraginaceae (Forget-me-not family)
Synonyms: Cordia canescens, Cordia curassavica

Tropical Black Sage is a profusely branched shrub, about 2 m tall. Stems are round, warty, hairy. Leaves are simple, alternate, lanceshaped or elliptic-ovate, 6-9 x 1-2.5 cm, somewhat leathery, narrowed or slightly oblique at base, pointed at tip, sawtoothed at margins, entire near base, rough and dark green above, woolly and pale green below; emitting a characteristic aroma when bruised; midrib flat on upper surface, raised on lower surface; leaf-stalks about 1 cm long, channeled; secondary veins 6-9 pairs. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils or at branch-ends, in interrupted scorpioid cymes, 4-12 cm long. Flowers are stalkless, flat-faced, white, about 3 mm long, cadu­cous, 5-lobed; petals about 1.4 mm long, triangular, blunt at tip. Stamens 5, epipetalous, inserted; filaments about 1.2 mm long, dorsifixed, hairy; anthers about 0.7 mm long. Sepal-cup bell-shaped, about 2.5 mm long, hairy outside, hairless inside, 5-lobed; sepals unequal, triangular, tapering at tip. Fruits are nearly spherical-ovoid, about 4 mm across, red; fruiting sepal-cup red, persistent, enlarged. Tropical Black Sage is native to Mexico to Tropical America, becoming a noxious weed in South India. Flowering: All year.

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The flower labeled Tropical Black Sage is ...