It might be one of the involucrata, maybe Mulberry Jam. You didn't get any of the leaves, but the stems to involucrata are quite brittle... as our Peeping Tom soon found out, and much to my dismay.

We really need to see an image of the foliage. My first impression was that it might be Salvia rubescens var. truxilensis, from Ginny Hunt. The growing tip does not look at all like involucrata or a hybrid. Involucrata and puberula do not set seed well.

I agree that it is not involucrata or puberula which I do have.Here is a close up off the foliage.......

Here is a link that might be useful: Close up off foliage

If I just saw the foliage, I would guess Scutellaria longifolia Purple Rain. The flower is the right size and color, but it is clearly a Salvia. The first image is a top down view. Can we get a side view?

It is clearly not Mulberry Jam or a hybrid of involucrata, either. Time to call in Robin and Christian Froissart.

Thanks, Rich, for suggesting me, but I have no idea! Doesn't look like the rubescens which I have, which never flowers anyway! It is intriguing however!

Robin.

Here is a pic off the flower and the side view on flickr,when it loads you will see a pic on the photostream in a tubepot, this is the same salvia but 2 months ago and when it was younger the foliage was so unique with very larg leaves and little leaves on the stem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Unknown Salvia

Pretty plant there, Annette!

Joseph

I wonder if it could be a North American species?

Robinn.

It is definitely a New World sage, adapted to a climate like the Central American Scutellarias and Salvia buchananii.

The zigzaging of the stem is not that unusual. Every now and then, I get a shoot off a sage where opposite patrs of nodes seem to get deactivated in an alternating pattern. The axillary stems off these are usually normal.

Another occasional development in axillary growth is for the stem to have 6-fold symmetry, with 6 vascular bundles and leaves coming out in whorls of three. In the case of Westringias, this is normal, and the vascular bundles progress to a normal of 8 per stem. I've not seen seedlings of this genus, but I assume they start out with the normal 4 vascular bundles.