Salvia merjamie

Description

Salvia merjamie is a herbaceous perennial plant that is native to the east African highlands from Ethiopia to Tanzania, and also across the Red Sea in Yemen. It grows between 6,000 and 13,000 feet elevation in grasslands, forest edges, rocky outcrops, basalt slopes, and fallow fields. The specific epithet merjamie is derived from meryamiye, the Arabian common name for the plant, which is shared with other local Salvia species such as Salvia lanigera. The Maasai common name for S. merjamie is Naingungundeu, meaning that the plant smells of rats, though the variety that is common in horticulture is named 'Mint Sauce' and is described as having a strong minty aroma. S. merjamie shares a similar distribution with Salvia nilotica, though they are not known to hybridize. The plant was named by Finnish plant collector Peter Forsskål (1732–1763), a student of Carl Linnaeus, while on an expedition to Arabia in 1762 with explorer Carsten Niebuhr and others. Forsskål died of malaria in 1763, less than a year after the trip began. His writings were later edited by Neibuhr, the only survivor of the trip, and published in 1775 as Descriptiones Animalium — Avium, amphiborum, insectorum, vermium quæ in itinere orientali observavit Petrus Forskål, which included the description and naming of Salvia merjamie.