Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Greek sage

(Salvia fruticosa)

galery
en

Description

Salvia fruticosa, or Greek sage, is a perennial herb or sub-shrub native to the eastern Mediterranean, including Southern Italy, the Canary Islands and North Africa. It is especially abundant in Israel/Palestine and Lebanon. Greek sage grows 2 ft (0.61 m) high and wide, with the flower stalks rising 1 ft (0.30 m) or more above the foliage. The entire plant is covered with hairs, with numerous leaves of various sizes growing in clusters, giving it a silvery and bushy appearance. The flowers are pinkish-lavender, about 0.5 in (1.3 cm) long, growing in whorls along the inflorescence, and held in a small oxblood-red five-pointed hairy calyx. In its native environment it grows as part of the Maquis shrubland and several other open plant communities, but populations composed entirely of Salvia fruticosa are not uncommon. Due its wide variation in leaf shape, there has been a great deal of taxonomic confusion over the years, with many of the leaf variations of Salvia fruticosa being named as distinct species. These include S. libanotica, S. triloba, S. lobryana, and S. cypria, which are now considered to be Salvia fruticosa.It blade and margins and dark green upper sides. Plants growing on the eastern side of the island have much smaller leaves, with deeply three-lobed yellowish-green blade and undulate margins. The variation continues throughout different parts of Greece. It has a long tradition of use in Greece, where it is valued for its beauty, medicinal value, and culinary use, along with its sweet nectar and pollen. Salvia fruticosa was depicted in a Minoan fresco circa 1400 BCE at Knossos on the island of Crete. The ancient Phoenicians and Greeks likely introduced the plant for cultivation to the Iberian peninsula, with remnant populations of these introduced plants still found in some coastal areas. Greek sage accounts for 50-95% of the dried sage sold in North America, and is grown commercially for its essential oil. It also has a long tradition of use in various Muslim rituals for newborn children, at weddings, in funerals, and burnt as incense. A cross between S. fruticosa and Salvia officinalis developed in the middle east is called "silver leaf sage" or Salvia" Newe Ya'ar'", and is used in cooking.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Lamiales
Family:Lamiaceae
Genus:Salvia
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