Semi-desert.  Sands.  Spring.
East of Bluff, Utah, May 3, 2007.

These scraggly, aromatic shrubs, our only shrubby Mints, grow to about three feet tall and broad and are often found by the dozens -- once located.  They are a high desert, semi-desert shrub found in several counties in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah and in only one county (Montezuma County) in Colorado.  

This species was at first named Hedeoma incana by John Torrey in 1858 from a specimen collected by Charles Wright and John Bigelow near El Paso, Texas on the Mexican Boundary Survey, probably in 1851-1852.  Asa Gray renamed the plant Poliomintha incana in 1870.  "Polio" is Greek for the color "gray". "Incana" is Latin for the color "gray".

Semi-desert.  Sands.  Spring.
East of Bluff, Utah, May 3, 2007.

Flowers are a very light lavender-white but appear to be more purple because of the color of the calyx.  The gray hairiness of the calyx gives rise to the name of this plant.