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salvia

 
Dictionary: sal·vi·a   (săl'vē-ə) pronunciation
n.
Any of various plants of the genus Salvia in the mint family, having opposite leaves, a two-lipped corolla, and two stamens.

[Latin salvia, sage. See sage2.]


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Any of about 900 species of herbaceous and woody plants that make up the genus Salvia, in the mint family. Some members (e.g., sage) are important as sources of flavouring. Easy to propagate, transplant, and grow in poor soil and drought conditions, salvias are a garden staple. Best-known is the 1 – 3-ft (30 – 90-cm) annual scarlet sage (S. splendens) from Brazil, whose blazing spikes contrast with dark green, oval leaves from midsummer to frost. Blue sage (S. farinacea), of southwestern North America, is a favourite in dried winter bouquets.

For more information on salvia, visit Britannica.com.

A genus of the plant family Lamiaceae.

  • S. coccinea — an unidentified toxin causes abortion, diarrhea, recumbency. Called also S. lineata, red salvia.
  • S. reflexa — has a high nitrate content and causes nitrate–nitrite poisoning in ruminants. Called also mintweed.
Annuals Dictionary: Salvia
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Mint family
Labiatae

Sal'vi-a. Sage. About 750 species of herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs distributed throughout the tropical and temperate world. The leaves of some species are used as a seasoning.

Description
Stems usually square. Leaves in pairs, opposite, simple, ovalish or lance-shaped, sometimes hairy, the margins toothed or deeply cut into segments, smaller toward the top. Flowers in whorls, the clusters 2- to many-flowered, growing from the axils of small, leafy bracts and arranged in terminal spikes or racemes. Colors varying. Calyx 5-lobed, joined about halfway down. Corolla 2-lipped, 3 lobes in the lower lip and 2 in the upper lip. Stamens 4, in pairs.

How to Grow
All species benefit from being started indoors, but they grow fairly reliably if sown outdoors in warm soil where summers are hot. Start seeds indoors 10 weeks before last frost. Give 75° F (24° C) bottom heat. When danger of frost is past, set out in open, sunny position. Give plenty of water in dry weather. In the South, Southwest, and low elevations of Calif., plants need light to moderate shade. Will not perform well where humidity is quite low. All prefer warm weather.

Salvia argentea
Silver Sage . 2-4 ft. (60-120 cm) high. Basal leaves broadly ovalish, to 6 in. (15 cm) long, cut into lobes or irregularly toothed, covered with white woolly hairs. Flowers 4-8 in interrupted whorls. Individual flowers to in. (13 mm) long, showy, upper lip longer than lower lip, whitish yellow or purplish. Mediterranean region. Perennial grown as a half-hardy annual.

Salvia farinacea
Mealy-Cup Sage . To 3 ft. (90 cm) high, covered with whitish, short hairs, and mealy. Flowers in. (13 mm) long, in many-whorled racemes, violet-blue. Flower-stalks sometimes bluish. Tex. Good for cutting. Perennial grown as half-hardy annual.

Salvia patens
Gentian Sage . To 3 ft. (90 cm) high and covered with short sticky hairs. Flowers blue, 2-3 in. (5.0-7.5 cm) long, in pairs, in widely spaced racemes. Mts. of Mexico. Cultivar 'Alba' has white flowers. Perennial grown as a half-hardy annual.

Salvia Sclarea
Clary ; Clear-Eye . To 3 ft. (90 cm) high. Bracts white at base, rose at tip. Flowers bluish white, 1 in. (2.5 cm) long, in loose, whorled racemes. S. Europe. Perennial or biennial grown as a half-hardy annual.

Salvia splendens
Scarlet Sage . To 3 ft. (90 cm) high. Bracts colored. Flowers typically scarlet, also white or rose-colored, 1 in. (4 cm) long, in whorled racemes. Brazil. Widely used for summer bedding. Tender annual.

Salvia viridis
To 18 in. (45 cm) high. Flowers white, rose, reddish purple or deep purple, in. (13 mm) long, in unbranched, elongated spikes. S. Europe. Also called S. Horminum . Half-hardy annual.




The botanical name for sage.

salvia

Wikipedia: Salvia
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Salvia
Salvia pratensis (Meadow sage)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Salvia
L.
Species

see List of Salvia species

Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, with approximately 900 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals.[1] It is one of three genera commonly referred to as sage. When used without modifiers, sage generally refers to Salvia officinalis ("common sage"); however, it can be used with modifiers to refer to any member of the genus. The ornamental species are commonly referred to by their scientific name Salvia. The genus is distributed throughout the world, with the center of diversity and origin appearing to be Central and South Western Asia,[2] while nearly 500 species are native to Mexico and Central and South America.[3]

The name is derived from the Latin salvere ("to save"), referring to the long-believed healing properties of salvia. The Latin was corrupted to 'sauja', to the French 'sauge', and to the old English 'sawge', and eventually became the modern day 'sage'.[4] Pliny the Elder was the first to use the Latin name salvia.[5]

Contents

Description

Salvia species include annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, along with woody based sub-shrubs. The stems are typically angled like other members in Lamiaceae. The flowers are produced in spikes, racemes, or panicles, and generally produce a showy display with flower colors ranging from blue to red, with white and yellow less common. The calyx is normally tubular or bell shaped, without bearded throats, and divided into two parts or lips, the upper lip entire or three-toothed, the lower two-cleft. The corollas are often claw shaped and are two-lipped with the upper lip entire or notched and spreading. The lower lip typically has three lobes with the middle lobe longest. The stamens are reduced to two short structures with anthers two-celled, the upper cell fertile, and the lower imperfect. The flower styles are two-cleft. The fruits are smooth nutlets and many species have a mucilaginous coating.

Many salvias have hairs growing on the leaves, stems, and flowers, which help to reduce water loss in some species. Sometimes the hairs are glandular and secrete volatile oils that typically give a distinct aroma to the plant. When the hairs are rubbed or brushed, some of the oil-bearing cells are ruptured, releasing the oil. This often results in the plant being unattractive to grazing animals and some insects.[6]

Salvia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species including the bucculatricid leaf-miner Bucculatrix taeniola which feeds exclusively on the genus and the Coleophora case-bearers C. aegyptiacae, C. salviella (both feed exclusively on S. aegyptiaca), C. ornatipennella and C. virgatella (both recorded on S. pratensis).

Classification

The defining characteristic of the genus Salvia is the unusual pollination mechanism, which consists of two stamens (instead of the typical four found in other members of the tribe Mentheae) and the way the two stamens are connected to form a lever. When a pollinator enters the flower for nectar, the lever activates causing the stamens to move and the pollen to be deposited on the pollinator. When the pollinator withdraws from the flower, the lever returns the stamens to their original position. As the pollinator enters another flower of the same species, the stigma is placed in a general location that corresponds to where the pollen was deposited on the pollinator's body. It is believed that this is a key factor in the speciation of this large group of diverse plants.[7] However, it now appears that somewhat different versions of this lever mechanism have evolved in the tribe Mentheae, and that Salvia is not monophyletic.[8][9]

The classification of different Salvia species has been very confusing over the years. Many species are similar to each other, and many species have varieties that have been given different specific names. Salvia officinalis, for example, has been described and named under six other specific names at various times. At one time there were over 2000 named Salvia species. That number has been reduced in recent years to 700-900 distinct species and subspecies, depending on the source.[10][11]

Commonly used species

Selected species

Notes

  1. ^ Clebsch, Betsy; Carol D. Barner (2003). The New Book of Salvias. Timber Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780881925609. http://books.google.com/books?id=NM0iwB8GrQYC&pg=PA18. 
  2. ^ Kintzios, Spiridon E. (2000). Sage: The Genus Salvia. CRC Press. pp. 27. ISBN 9789058230058. 
  3. ^ Clebsch, p. 19.
  4. ^ Kintzios, p. 10.
  5. ^ Clebsch, p. 17.
  6. ^ Sutton, John (2004). The Gardener's Guide to Growing Salvias. Workman Publishing Company. pp. 15–16. ISBN 9780881926712. 
  7. ^ Clasenbockhoff, R. (2004). "The staminal lever mechanism in Salvia L. (Lamiaceae): a key innovation for adaptive radiation?". Organisms Diversity & Evolution 4: 189. doi:10.1016/j.ode.2004.01.004. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7GJ9-4D2F13P-9&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=ba36292de66337e1fc11c4c8ab5670b5. 
  8. ^ Jay B. Walker, Kenneth J. Sytsma, Jens Treutlein and Michael Wink (2004). "Salvia (Lamiaceae) is not monophyletic: implications for the systematics, radiation, and ecological specializations of Salvia and tribe Mentheae". American Journal of Botany 91: 1115–1125. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.7.1115. http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/7/1115. 
  9. ^ Walker, Jay B., Sytsma, Kenneth J. (August 2007). "Staminal Evolution in the Genus Salvia (Lamiaceae): Molecular Phylogenetic Evidence for Multiple Origins of the Staminal Lever". Annals of Botany 100 (2): 375–391. doi:10.1093/aob/mcl176. PMID 16926227. 
  10. ^ Sutton, p. 17.
  11. ^ Clebsch, p. 18.
  12. ^ Akhondzadeh, S; Noroozian, M; Mohammadi, M; Ohadinia, S; Jamshidi, Ah; Khani, M (February 2003). "Salvia officinalis extract in the treatment of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: a double blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial". Journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics 28 (1): 53–9. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2710.2003.00463.x. ISSN 0269-4727. PMID 12605619. 
  13. ^ Dos, Santos-Neto, Ll; De, Vilhena, Toledo, Ma; Medeiros-Souza, P; De, Souza, Ga (December 2006). "The use of herbal medicine in Alzheimer's disease-a systematic review" (Free full text). Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM 3 (4): 441–5. doi:10.1093/ecam/nel071. PMID 17173107. PMC 1697739. http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=17173107. 
  14. ^ Perry, Ek; Pickering, At; Wang, Ww; Houghton, P; Perry, Ns (Winter 1998). "Medicinal plants and Alzheimer's disease: Integrating ethnobotanical and contemporary scientific evidence". Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) 4 (4): 419–28. doi:10.1089/acm.1998.4.419. ISSN 1075-5535. PMID 9884179. 
  15. ^ Iuvone, T; De, Filippis, D; Esposito, G; D'Amico, A; Izzo, Aa (June 2006). "The spice sage and its active ingredient rosmarinic acid protect PC12 cells from amyloid-beta peptide-induced neurotoxicity" (Free full text). The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics 317 (3): 1143–9. doi:10.1124/jpet.105.099317. PMID 16495207. http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=16495207. 
  16. ^ Tan, Benny K.-H., Boon-Huat Bay, and Yi-Zhun Zhu. 2004. Novel compounds from natural products in the new millennium: potential and challenges. Singapore: World Scientific. Page 183.
  17. ^ http://hort.ufl.edu/shrubs/SALSPLA.PDF
  18. ^ Gladstar, Rosemary; Pamela Hirsch (2000). Planting the Future. Inner Traditions / Bear & Company. pp. 247–251. ISBN 9780892818945. http://books.google.com/books?id=ndk42wxMBzUC&pg=PA247. 
  19. ^ Sack, Kevin; Brent McDonald (2008-09-08). "Popularity of a Hallucinogen May Thwart Its Medical Uses". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/us/09salvia.html. Retrieved 2009-01-19. 

References

  • Sage: The Genus Salvia by Spiridon E. Kintzios, CRC Press, 2000. ISBN 9789058230058.
  • The Gardener's Guide to Growing Salvias by John Sutton, Timber Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0881924749.
  • The New Book of Salvias by Betsy Clebsch, Timber Press, 2003. ISBN 9780881925609. An excellent reference on salvias.


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