Salvia verbenacea L.
Diagnostic description:
A herbaceous perennial to 40 cm tall, with one or more stems. The upper parts are glandular hairy, and the lower parts pubescent. Leaves form a basal rosette; ovate or oblong, 10 to 15 cm long, pinnately lobed, with margins more or less crenate and surface quite wrinkled. Flowers 1 to 1.5 cm long, blue-violet, the upper lip sometimes darker than the lower one; arranged in verticillasters of about 6 flowers, the whorls being distinctively distant from each other when in fruit. Nutlets 1.5 to 2 mm long.
Distribution:
Local: Not common in Gibraltar. Found mainly on Windmill Hill Flats.
Global: Found in the Mediterranean region, western Europe and the Canary Islands.
Ecology:
Flowers from (January) March to April (May).
Habitat:
Grows on open, stony ground.