Salvia fruticosa Mill.
Eng.: Greek sage. Spa.: Salvia, marisielva. Fre.: Sauge de Grèce.
Shrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 1.5 m in height. Stems branched from the base, with lanate lower part, with eglandular hairs and upper part with glandular indumentum. Leaves opposite, 2-5 cm, petiolate, with trilobed leaf blade, with central lobe much larger than the 2 lateral ones, tomentose, obtuse, crenulate, greenish on the upper side and greyish white on the underside. Inflorescence in lax spike of verticillasters, simple or branched; verticillasters with 4-8 flowers and bracteoles much shorter than the calyx, membranous, caducous. Flowers pedicellate, with pedicels 4-6 mm. Calyx 5-10 mm, campanulate, viscid, with glandular and eglandular hairs, and sessile glands. Corolla bilabiate, about 3 times longer than the calyx, pink-purple, blue-violet, pale lilac or sometimes white. Nutlets 1-2 mm.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
May to August.
Habitat:
Thickets and clearings in forests on calcareous stony soils, from sea level to 700 m in altitude.
Distribution:
Central and eastern Mediterranean (Malta, E Sicily, S Italy, S Albania, Greece, W Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel and Libya). In North Africa it is native only in Cyrenaica (Libya), but it is cultivated as an ornamental and has escaped from cultivation and is naturalised through all North African countries.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.