Flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and many other nectar-seeking insects. Moth larval food plant for the Alfalfa Looper Moth (Autographa californica), Bilobed Looper Moth (Megalographa biloba), Virginian Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica), Wavy-Lined Emerald (Synchlora aerata), the geometrid Pherne subpunctata, and the plume moth (Anstenoptilia marmarodactyla).

This plant was used for multiple medicinal and cultural purposes by tribes throughout its range. People of the Kawasiiu, Paiute, Shoshoni, Washoe and Okanagan-Colville tribes made infusions and decoctions of the leaves and stems of purple sage for a cold remedy. They also made poultices of the leaves to apply to the chest, smoked dried leaves and made steam baths with the leaves to ease congestion. Infusions, decoctions, washes and poultices of this plant were also used to treat headaches, stomachaches, fever, influenza, pneumonia, gonorrhea, swollen leg veins, eye problems and general illness. The Hopi used smoke and an infusion of the plant to alleviate epilepsy and faintness and the Kawaiisu threw the plant into fire to keep away spirits and ghosts. The Hopi, Kumiai, and Paipai also used the plant to treat stomachaches, headaches and other medical conditions.

It is native to mountain areas in the western United States and northwestern Arizona, found mainly in the Great Basin Range habitat and southward to the Mojave Desert, growing in dry, well draining soils. Some large native populations of this species also are found in the Aquarius Plateau region of Southern Utah.