Salvia verbenaca can be distinguished from salvia pratensis, meadow clary, by its larger leaf teeth, less finely wrinkled leaf texture, smaller flowers, and the longer calyx hairs.
Common name:
Wild clary
Family:
Scientific name:
Salvia verbenaca
Main flower color:
Range:
South and southeast England
Height:
Up to 80 cm
Habitat:
Dry calcareous grassland, often coastal
Flowers:
Up to 3 cm long; a bluish-purple corolla with an arched upper lip and a shallowly lobed lower lip, white at the centre, and a purplish, glandular hairy calyx also with two lips. The upper calyx lip is lined by three very small teeth, while the lower lip is deeply divided, the lobes spiny at the apex. Stamens, held against the upper lip, have purple filaments and gold anthers. Flowers form in whorls along the upper portion of the stem, typically of four or five heads, subtended by leafy bracts
Leaves:
Ovate, up to 12 cm long, with a wrinkled surface, lined by jagged teeth; in a basal rosette (stalked) and in a few opposite pairs along the stem (unstalked)
Season:
May to August
Rarity:
★★★★★
