Salvia officinalis

The True Sage (Salvia officinalis), also Garden sage, Kitchen sage, or salvia salvation, is a high and 80 centimeters shrub of the genus sage. The evergreen aromatic and medicinal plant comes from the Mediterranean, but is now spread throughout Europe.

The real sage is a plant of traditional country gardens. All its parts have a strong aromatic smell. As a heat-loving plant of Mediterranean origin in Central Europe it is winter hardy and requires only limited locations in climatically harsh winter protection. It is therefore not very competitive with weeds and wild rarely seen. The True sage grows best on calcareous, stony and dry soil (eg in premolars Xerothermrasen).

The woody stem near the bottom of the genuine sage are weak square to round and usually branched down sharply. They rise straight or arched to curved and are particularly in the upper part covered with dense hair curly. From the woody stems in part, but also from the axils of the lower leaves on stems, leafy often densely drive from sterile shoots, ie Branches that do not form inflorescence. The leaves of the plant are in pairs opposite the stem. The bottom has a handle that can be as long as the leaf blade (up to about nine centimeters). The length of the leaf stalk participates in the stem towards the top, the upper leaves are sessile (sitting). The shape of the leaves is lanceolate ovate to oblong, and may be up to five centimeters wide. The leaf surface is wrinkled. The leaves are hairy tomentose, white and thus have a gray-green color. Older leaves verkahlen, especially on the top. The leaf margin, if at all, only slightly notched.

The purple, rarely pink or white flowers have a typical form of the Lamiaceae. The upper lip is curved almost straight and comparatively little. The corolla is two to three centimeters long. It is enclosed in a about an inch long, usually reddish-brown cup. This is clearly divided into an upper and a lower part with three with two corners, and pubescent on the nerves and on the edge. The flowers are on short stalks in the upper part of the stem of four to ten in five to eight loose whorls. The True sage blooms from May to July.


Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echter_Salbei
See Also: sending flowers, online florist