''Salvia clevelandii'', the fragrant sage, blue sage, Jim sage, Cleveland sage, and Cleveland's blue sage is a

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

of family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil (herb), ba ...

native to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

and northern

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, growing below elevation in California coastal sage and chaparral habitat. The plant was named in 1874 by

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botany, botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' (1876) was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessaril ...

, honoring plant collector Daniel Cleveland.

Description

''Salvia clevelandii'' is an evergreen shrub that reaches in height and width. The fragrant, ashy green leaves are

obovate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets) ...

and

rugose Rugose means "wrinkled". It may refer to: * Rugosa, an extinct order of coral, whose rugose shape earned it the name * Rugose, adjectival form of rugae Species with "rugose" in their names * ''Idiosoma nigrum'', more commonly, a black rugose tra ...

, growing less than long. Flowers are on spikes, with numerous whorls of upright amethyst blooms opening in June–July.

Phytochemistry

The rose potpourri scented foliage of hybrids is composed of

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel (''Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the kapu ...

and 1,8-cineole. Named cultivars with a eucalyptus scent also contain around 20% 1,8-cineole.

Taxonomy

''Salvia clevelandii'' was described in 1874 as ''Audibertia clevelandii'' (the

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both botan ...

) by

, named in honor of Daniel Cleveland. Cleveland was an amateur botanist and civic leader from

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, who had taken an interest in the local flora and fauna, sending his collections to Gray over a 20-year correspondence. In the wild, this species may hybridize with '' Salvia apiana'' and '' Salvia mellifera''.

Distribution and habitat

''Salvia clevelandii'' is found throughout portions of

and northwestern

, in chaparral and coastal sage scrub. It is distributed along the coast of

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...

, the

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Pacific Coast Range ...

of San Diego and Orange counties, and in northwestern Baja California, from the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

to the northern portion of the central desert in the southern Sierra de San Pedro Martir.

Cultivation

''Salvia clevelandii'' is a popular Southwest US landscape plant, cultivated since the 1940s. Plants prefer dry summers, good drainage, and tolerate full sun in cooler areas. As a landscape plant they have a relatively short life span of five to ten years. They are hardy to . Cultivars and hybrids include: *'Winnifred Gilman', a popular cultivar with intense violet-blue flowers. *'Betsy Clebsch', a shorter cultivar with wide variation in flower color. *'Allen Chickering', 'Aromas', 'Pozo Blue', 'Santa Cruz Dark', and 'Whirly Blue' are hybrids with similar appearance. ''Salvia clevelandii'' is one of the parents of the hybrid ''Salvia'' 'Celestial Blue'.

Notes

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q7406766 clevelandii Flora of California Flora of Baja California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Butterfly food plants Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants Plants described in 1874 Taxa named by Asa Gray