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Salvia serpyllifolia is a small woody perennial sage from northeastern Mexico, forming a low mound with tiny glossy leaves and purple flowers. It needs well-drained soil and full sun to thrive, and it tolerates dry conditions once established.
Salvia serpyllifolia is a woody perennial endemic to a small area in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. It was described by Merritt Lyndon Fernald in 1900, who gave it the epithet serpyllifolia because of its small, shiny leaves—similar to the leaves of Thymus serpyllum. Salvia serpyllifolia was introduced into horticulture in 1990 from seed collected at 7,000 feet elevation. At that time it was thought to be a variety of Salvia microphylla.
Salvia serpyllifolia is a small mounding plant that reaches 2 feet (0.61 m) high and 3 feet (0.91 m) wide. The 0.5-inch (13 mm) leaves are a bright glossy green which give off a faint straw-like aroma when crushed. The flowers are less than 0.7 inches (18 mm) long and are a beetroot-purple color, blooming sporadically from summer into fall. The whorls consist of 2–6 flowers each.
Egyptian Sage · Mediterranean sage · White sage · Brown Sage · Santa Rosa Island sage · Buchanan's Sage · Guatemalan Leaf Sage · Candelabra Sage · Cayman sage · Fragrant sage · Blood sage · Chia
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salvia serpyllifolia 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.
