Salvia greggii: otherwise known as Autumn Sage, Wild Thing

I showed the Stinkyplant to my coworker, and she thought it was a type of mint because its stem is square and the leaves are opposite of each other.  She is a fount of wisdom, and within 15 minutes she sent me this website:
http://www.easybloom.com/plantlibrary/plant/autumn-sage-6
Aha!  Stinkyplant is really Autumn Sage!!  It does look very similar to the Wild Thing cultivar, a red-pink vibrant flower.  It is a bush sage, which is a salvia, which is a mint, so both coworker and mother-in-law were correct.

Both my coworkers thought the scent of the plant was very tasty and minty, even when crushed.  Blergh!  My wise coworker said that people who grew up near the ocean or foothills/mountains (as my husband and I did) aren't used to the volatile oils of valley plants and interpret them as offensive.  Makes sense... vastly unfamiliar plants should be off-putting so that we don't taste them when we don't know if they're edible.  It's true, to me a lot of native valley herbs have that underlying scent to them (just never as strong as this one).  She is taking home my samples to see if she can root them for her garden's hummingbirds, but I will also try to make her a larger potted plant.  It was very difficult to get the autumn sage separated at the root level, but hopefully its amazing vigor allows it to flourish in the pot.

Here is a link which breaks down sages into different categories... my Salvia greggii is an "aromatic sage."
http://www.iamshaman.com/salvia/salvia-sage.htm
Something strange has happened to my perception of the plant.  Now that I know it's used as a tea/gargle for throat ailments (use leaves only), a flavoring for heavy meat/bean stews, and that it is a mint, I can smell the mintiness of the plant.  It is no longer offensive to my nose... as long as it doesn't get crushed.  I'm open-minded... perhaps with this revelation I can come to love the plant more.  And maybe one day I will get brave enough to try some tea.