Greek Sage
Growth habit
Shrub
Perennation
Cultivated as annual
Native distribution
Canary Is & N Africa
Biocultural value
Native to the Mediterranean, this sage species has been a culinary seasoning since ancient times.
Location
Source of plant
Richters
Description
Shrub to 1m. Stems much-branched, glanduar pubescent to tomentose. Leaves to 5x2cm, petiolate, simple or pinnatifid, ovate or lanceolate to oblong, somewhat rugose, white-tomentose beneath, terminal segments elliptic to auriculate, margin notched; petioles to 3cm. Verticillasters 2-8 flowered, approximate or distant, in panicles or racemes to 20cm; pedicels to 2mm; bracts to 7x3mm, deciduous, ovate, apex narrowly acute, bracteoles deciduous, membranous; calyx to 9mm, tubular to bell-shaped, glandular-pubescent, lips connate in fruit, teeth of lower lip subequal, deltoid, apex acute; corolla to 25mm, pink to mauve or, occasionally, white, tube plane, interior annular-pubescent, uper lip plane. Fruit to 3mm, globose to ovoid.
USDA Hardiness Zone
9
Special characteristics
food, tender perennial