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Salvia muirii
Also called Muirs Sage, Vicks Sage, White Eye Sage
Muir's sage is a small evergreen shrub from the southern coast of South Africa, reaching about 2 feet tall, with tiny olive-green leaves that smell strongly of Vicks when crushed. It is grown mainly for its aroma and as a foliage plant in warm, sunny, well-drained gardens.
Salvia muirii (Muir's sage) is an evergreen perennial shrub native to limited areas east of the Cape of Good Hope and Mossel Bay on the southern coast of South Africa. It grows in an area influenced by the climate of the Indian Ocean, on rolling hills between 200 and 1000 feet elevation. The plant was first collected by Dr. John Muir, a Scottish physician and plant collector who spent many years in South Africa. Muir wrote to the botanist Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus, who named the plant after him.
Salvia muirii reaches 2 feet tall in its native habitat, less in cultivation. It grows into a stiff erect shrub, with small branches and tiny .75 inch olive-green leaves. The leaves appear smaller because each one is slightly folded along the middle. When crushed, they give off an aroma described as "reminiscent of a medicine cabinet" or of Vicks.
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 muirii 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.
