Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Clary Sage - Salvia sclarea   L.
Members of Lamiaceae:
Members of Salvia with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Lamiales » Family Lamiaceae
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AuthorL.
DistributionA collection from "eastern North Carolina" reads "cultivated and escaped" (herbarium GA and NCSC). It was sent in for ID and lacks habitat and location data. Others from Bertie, Orange, and Randolph counties are from cultivated plants. BONAP maps it from Randolph County, but the specimen (at NCU) is from a yard and does not indicate that it was not cultivated.

Native of the Mediterranean region; in N.A. MA to Ont. south to NC; also MO and westward.
AbundanceVery rare, though uncertain if any records are truly of escaped individuals.
HabitatNo NC data.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting -- no NC data.
IdentificationClary Sage is a stout plant up to 3 feet tall, and has large ovate leaves 4-8 inches long. The flower bracts are leaflike and often tinged pink or rosy; the flowers are large and rose-magenta, rarely blue. There are usually many vertically-oriented spike-like racemes on each plant.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.