Plant · P-709

Chia

Salvia hispanica

Chia is a warm-season annual in the mint family, grown for its small seed, which swells into a gel when soaked in water and is drunk as a cooling flavoured drink, sprouted for salads, or ground into bread. Its flowers draw bees, butterflies and hummingbirds through most of the growing season, but the plant itself only flowers once day length drops below about twelve hours, so it holds a bed for months before it yields anything and a seed harvest fails entirely where the growing season is short or ends before that trigger arrives. Seed sold as chia is sometimes actually a different, similar-looking Salvia species, so the label is worth a second look.