Texas State Native Shrub

Texas Purple Sage

(Leucophyllum frutescens)

Adopted in 2005

The Texas Purple Sage was adopted as the Texas State Native Shrub in 2005.

A gray shrub with leaves covered with silvery hairs and bright pink-lavender, bilaterally symmetrical flowers borne singly in crowded leaf axils. Typically a compact shrub, 2-5 ft. tall, Texas barometer-bush or cenizo occasionally reaches 8 ft. in height, and 4-6 ft. width. Purple, violet, pink or white, bell-shaped flowers; small, silvery-white, oval, evergreen leaves; and a silvery, twisted trunk characterize this plant.

Common names

Texas ranger, Texas sage, barometer bush, cenizo, silverleaf, purple sage.

House Concurrent Resolution No.14, 75th Legislature, Regular Session (1997)

79R5137 MMS-D

By: Bonnen H.C.R. No. 71

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The State of Texas has customarily recognized a
variety of official symbols as tangible representations of the
state's culture and natural history; and
WHEREAS, Like the bluebonnet and the pecan tree, Texas purple
sage (Leucophyllum frutescens) is indigenous to the Lone Star State
and a treasured part of the Texas landscape; also known as cenizo,
Texas silverleaf, barometer bush, and Texas ranger, the plant grows
naturally on the Edwards Plateau and the South Texas Plains; and
WHEREAS, This hardy evergreen was first described by Jean
Louis Berlandier, a botanist who collected specimens of Texas flora
in the late 1820s and early 1830s; bearing silvery gray to green
foliage, the shrub bursts into color year-round soon after a rain,
with blossoms varying from purple to lavender, pink, blue, and
white; and
WHEREAS, Native Americans brewed a pleasant herbal tea from
Texas purple sage and used it to treat chills and fever; the shrub
also provides forage for cattle, protection for birds, and a
nesting place for songbirds, including the state bird of Texas, the
mockingbird; in addition, the plant serves a multitude of design
functions, working well as an ornamental shrub or as a hedge,
screen, windbreak, or foundation planting; and
WHEREAS, Texas purple sage has been described as a plant that
"can face droughts, freezes, high winds, salt spray, hungry deer,
and blazing heat and keep right on performing beautifully," and
such fortitude is a quality highly admired in the Lone Star State;
and
WHEREAS, In view of this plant's important role in the
ecology of Texas and its usefulness to the people of this land from
ancient to modern times, it is altogether fitting that the Texas
purple sage be appropriately recognized; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby designate Texas purple sage (Leucophyllum frutescens) as the
official State Native Shrub of Texas.