Baby sage (Salvia microphylla) is an evergreen shrub from southeastern Arizona and Mexico, grown for its heavy late-spring and autumn flowers and strongly fragrant leaves. It is a complex species that hybridizes readily, so many garden plants are hybrids or cultivars.
Family
Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water deeply when the top few centimetres of soil dry out, and less in winter.
Soil
Well-drained soil or loam; tolerates poor soil.
Temperature
15–30 °C; protect below about -5 °C
How easy
Easy
Native range
Arizona to Guatemala
Climate
subtropical
About
Salvia microphylla, synonyms including Salvia grahamii, Salvia lemmonii and Salvia neurepia; the baby sage, Graham's sage, or blackcurrant sage, is an evergreen shrub found in the wild in southeastern Arizona and the mountains of eastern, western, and southern Mexico. It is a very complex species which easily hybridizes, resulting in numerous hybrids and cultivars brought into horticulture since the 1990s. The specific epithet microphylla, from the Greek, means "small leaved". In Mexico it is called mirto de montes, or "myrtle of the mountains".
Uses
Salvia microphylla is grown in central Mexico as a medicinal plant, and used for making tea.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salvia microphylla 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.