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Salvia desoleana
Sardinian Sage is a fragrant, low-growing perennial subshrub endemic to a few sunny limestone and rocky sites in Sardinia, so it is rarely grown outside botanic collections. It needs full sun, excellent drainage and a dry, mild climate.
Salvia desoleana is a herbaceous perennial shrub native to the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean. It is endemic to four or five specific locations on the island in sunny locations on limestone, granitic, and igneous rock. Salvia desoleana was named for the botanist Luigi Desole, and was first described in 1982.
It is a low-growing plant with elongated rhizomatous roots that grow parallel to the ground. Each plant forms a mound 2–3 ft (0.61–0.91 m) tall and 3–4 ft (0.91–1.22 m) wide. The ovate leaves grow as large as 8 in long (200 mm) by 6 in wide (150 mm), with both surfaces covered with hairs and glands, releasing a strong fragrance when crushed or brushed. The 1-foot inflorescences (0.30 m) have hairy stems, with evenly spaced whorls of six flowers, whose calyces include two 1-inch-wide (25 mm) leafy green bracts.
Turkish Black Sage · Wuyi Mountain Sage · Salvia adoxoides · Egyptian Sage · Orange Sage · Mediterranean sage · African Blue Sage · Salvia alatipetiolata · Cederberg Sage · Handsome Sage · Algerian Sage · Salvia amethystina
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salvia desoleana 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.
