''Salvia merjamie'' (Rift Valley sage) is a herbaceous perennial plant that is native to the

east African highlands East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

from

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, and also across the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...

. It grows between 6,000 and 13,000 feet elevation in grasslands, forest edges, rocky outcrops, basalt slopes, and

fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store Organic compound, organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting ...

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 ''Salvia lanigera'' (Libyan wild clary) is a small herbaceous perennial that is native from northern Egypt and Arabia, to the south of Turkey and Iran. It grows in low altitude deserts, in sandy loam and chalky sandstone soils. The specific epith ...

''. The

Maasai Maasai may refer to: *Maasai people *Maasai language *Maasai mythology The Maasai mythology or Maasai religion are the traditional beliefs of the Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania. In Maasai culture, nature and its elements are important facets ...

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 Peter Forsskål, sometimes spelled Pehr Forsskål, Peter Forskaol, Petrus Forskål or Pehr Forsskåhl (11 January 1732 – 11 July 1763) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish explorer, orientalist, naturalist, and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Early ...

(1732–1763), a student of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

, while on an expedition to Arabia in 1762 with explorer

Carsten Niebuhr Carsten Niebuhr, or Karsten Niebuhr (17 March 1733 Lüdingworth – 26 April 1815 Meldorf, Dithmarschen), was a German mathematician, cartographer, and explorer in the service of Denmark. He is renowned for his participation in the Royal Danis ...

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''.

Description

''Salvia merjamie'' grows 2–3 feet tall, with mostly basal leaves that are covered with oil glands, and sometimes with light hair on both leaf surfaces. The dark green oblong leaves form a rosette, with light scalloping on the edge. The leaves grow up to 6 inches long and 2 inches wide, with a 1.5 inch petiole. The flowers, usually less than 1 inch long, grow in whorls, varying in color. The variety grown in horticulture is very pale blue, verging on cream, with a falcate upper lip. The small calyces are typically violet-purple. The inflorescences are short, with a main flowering stem that has alternating pairs of flower stems at right angles to each other, a botanical arrangement known as ''

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...

''. The mathematically precise flower structure gives the plant a striking appearance.

Cultivation

''Salvia merjamie'' prefers a half to full day of sun, well draining soil, and regular moderate watering. It is hardy down to for short periods, and is typically short-lived, flowering and producing seed for about three years in cultivation. The bloom period is short, approximately three weeks, with bees and hummingbirds typically drawn to the flowers. The variety commonly sold in horticulture is named 'Mint Sauce', which was first collected near the top of

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...

in Tanzania and is described as having a strong minty aroma.

Notes

External links

IPNI listing - ''Salvia merjamie''.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7406835 merjamie Flora of Ethiopia Flora of Tanzania Flora of Yemen Garden plants of Africa Drought-tolerant plants