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Mediterranean sage

Salvia aethiopis

Also called African Sage

Mediterranean sage
Photo: Eric Coombs, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 us

Mediterranean sage (Salvia aethiopis) is a biennial or short-lived perennial herb from Europe and Central Asia, best known in North America as a weedy pest of rangelands and pastures. It spreads readily and is not grown as an ornamental, so care advice applies mainly to controlling it.

Family
Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Drought tolerant once established; it needs little supplemental water.
Soil
Dry, well-drained soils; it grows well in poor, gravelly ground.
Temperature
Hardy in cold winters; tolerates hot, dry summers.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Europe to C. Asia
Climate
temperate

About

Salvia aethiopis is a species of perennial plant known by the common names Mediterranean sage or African sage. It is best known as a noxious weed, particularly in the western United States. It is native to Eurasia and was probably introduced to North America as a contaminant of alfalfa seed. It is a weed of rangelands and pastures. It is unpalatable to livestock, it disrupts native floral communities, and it becomes a physical nuisance due to the similarity of the persistent dried stems to tumbleweed. The weevil Phrydiuchus tau is used as an agent of biological pest control on this plant.

Boya and Valverde examined a sample of Salvia aethiopis. Acetone extracts of the root furnished a new orthoquinone diterpene, aethiopinone (4,5-seco-5,10-friedo-abieta-4(18),5,6,8,13-pentaen-11,12-dione). This compound was isolated in 0.15% yield from the dry roots.

Other Salvia plants

Egyptian Sage · White sage · Brown Sage · Santa Rosa Island sage · Buchanan's Sage · Guatemalan Leaf Sage · Candelabra Sage · Cayman sage · Fragrant sage · Blood sage · Chia · Yerba de la pastora

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salvia aethiopis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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