Salvia sclarea

Plant Characteristics

Habit		herbaceous
Height:	⇕	36 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 36. to 48 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 48.
Width:	⇔	36 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 36.
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Bloom:	❀	early summer, mid summer, late summer

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Features:	✓	flowers, edible
USDA Zones:		4 to 9
Flower features:	❀	blue, purple, white

Scientific Names

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Salvia sclarea, clary, or clary sage, is a biennial or short-lived herbaceous perennial in the genus Salvia. It is native to the region from Central Asia to the north Mediterranean.

It is a short lived herbaceous perennial that reaches 1 m in height when in flower. In winter it dies back to a basal rosette. The leaves have a woolly-texture and are 10-20 cm long and 6-12 cm broad. Its flowers appear in several clusters of 2-6 on the stem, are 2.5-3.5 cm long, and are white, pink, or pale purple in color. The bracts on the flowering stems have similar colors to the flowers. Oil bearing glands occur profusely on the flowering stems.

The leaves have also been used as a vegetable. Clary is often grown as an ornamental plant in gardens and as a herb in herb beds, whence it can be used in sauces and stuffing, much as other sages.

Read about Salvia sclarea in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Salvia sclarea. (S. bracteata, Sims, not Soland., in Russ. S. Simsiana, R. & S.). Clary. Biennial, 2-3 ft. high: st. herbaceous, stout, erect, villous: lvs. often 8-9 x 4-5 in., petiolate, broad-ovate, erose-crenate, base cordate, hoary, the uppermost clasping; floral lvs. very broad, acuminate, concave, membranaceous, colored, their base white, their tips rose: racemes paniculate; floral whorls distant, about 6-fld.; calyx campanulate, striate, pubescent-hispid, the teeth rather spiny-acuminate; corolla whitish blue, the tube included. Aug. S. Eu. Var. turkestanica, Hort. (S. turkestanica, Hort. S. turkestaniana, Hort.), grows 3 ft. high, has quadrangular sts. tinged with pink, basal lvs. on long petioles and long spikes, 2 1/2 ft. high, of large white fls., tinged with pink. There is a form offered in the trade under the name of S. turkestanica superba, Hort., which has "dense branched pyramids of silky foliage and conspicuous rosy bracts, and white fls." S. bracteata, Soland., in Russ., is a valid species belonging to Section 1. It is a subshrub about 1-1 1/2 ft. high, with purplish fls. and a native of Asia Minor and Syria. Probably not in cult. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Gallery

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  Clusters of clary flowers

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  photo 1

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  photo 2

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  photo 3

References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Salvia sclarea. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
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