While picking up an apple crisp pie (around $33) at the Farm outside Salinas (California), I saw a 6-foot purple plant growing the parking lot by the garden.
I used Google lens to identify the plant and saw that is is a Brazilian vervain verbena plant.
The Brazilian vervain verbena is very useful to the Salinas area for several reasons:
-their flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds and other crop pollinators
-bees use honey they collect to make honey
-the plant is drought resistant
-the plant is heat tolerant
-the plant is deer resistant
Details on this plant from a nursery and purchase information follow:
Have fun garden strolling at the Farm outside Salinas, California where you can buy pie and heirloom tomatoes among other items!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games