Nomenclature

Species name:

Salvia verbenaca   L.

Author(s):

Carl von Linné
   Sweden, 1707-1778

General names:

Wild Clary
Wild sage
Vervain salvia

Maltese name:

Salvja salvaġġa

Plant Family:

Lamiaceae / Labiatae   (Mint Family)

Name Derivation:

Salvia = Referring to helping, saving or healing, due to the possible medicinal properties of these group of plants. (Latin);
verbenaca = Resembling vervain (=Verbena), a group of herbs known for their medicinal properties especially in restoring defective vision. (Latin).

Synonyms:

Gallitrichum arvale, Horminum verbenaceum, Salvia betonicifolia, S. clandestina, S. controversa, S. horminoides, S.laciniata, S. linnaei, S. rhodantha, S. verbenacea

Plant Description

Life Cycle:

Perennial

Habitat:

Garigues rich in soil, waste rocky places, roadsides and valleysides

Sources in Malta:

Frequent. Examples include Pembroke, Gnejna, Fomm ir-Rih, Chadwick Lakes,

Plant Height:

10-50cm

Flowering Time:

Oct-Jun

A herbaceous, erect, perennial plant which forms few opposite branches (or none at all), a low leaf stock, and fairly tall flowering stems which looks like spikes. The upper part of the stems are covered by glandular hairs (=have a gland at the base), while the lower part is simply pubescent, that is very short hair without glands.

The plant forms a basal rosette of leaves which may be found only few cm up the stems in adult plants. Leaves are oval in shape with a dull green colour. Leaf blades are conspicuously wrinkled due to the deep sunken reticulate venation. Younger leaves have a lobed margin and short petioles while adult leaves have much longer petioles and are deeply lobed, sometimes pinnatifid with oblong lobes. All leaves have a serrated margin. They measure betwen 5-10cm long and 2-5 cm wide.

Inflorescence are rows of 6(-10) flowered verticillasters, stacked and well-spaced one over each other along the tall flowering stems. The bracts are very small, less then half the length of the calyx and have the same wrinkled and lobed appearance as the leaves. The calyx is a 2-lipped structure, 6-8mm long, with the upper lip possessing 3 broad, rounded teeth, and lower lip having 2 acute teeth often ending with a bristle-like tip. Calyx is longitudinally veined and is green with upper part sometimes turning reddish-brown.

The corolla is a 2-lipped structure with a blue, mauve or violet-blue colour, around 8-10mm long. The upper lip has an elongated oval shape with its sides curved inwards to form a hood-like structure. Sometimes the sides are so much curved in, that they come in touch with each other forming a tube-like structure. The lower lip is paler in colour and divided into 3 lobes. The lateral lobes are much shorter from the central one and are more or less flat and triangular in shape. The central and larger lobe is oval and curved in to form a slightly concave structure. It has darker bluish markings at its central part. The lateral lobes sometimes overlap with the upper lip.

The male reproducive organs consists of 2 stamens connected to each other of which one is sterile and the other is fertile. The latter has a large anther that produces yellow-amber pollen that contrasts well against the bluish hue of the upper lip. The anthers are found more or less half way and close to the upper lip. The pistil (= female part) consists of an ovary hidden inside the calyx with a pale style much longer from the stamen, which in fact, it is found protruding by 2-3mm beyond the tip of the upper lip of the corolla. The stigma is deeply split into 2 curved parts and it is deep purple in colour (compared to the paler style).

The fruit consists of a maximum of 4 nutlets held within the base of the calyx. The nutlets are black, ovate, smooth and about 2mm long. They simply fall out from the calyx with swaying of the stems.

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