Salvia polystachia
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Through Perennial and Horticulture
Description
Salvia polystachia grows up to 3–9 ft (1–3 m) in one season, preferring the shelter of other plants because the stems become very brittle. It blooms in late summer or early fall, with 0.5 in (13 mm) flowers that are violet-blue at the edge and fading to white at the center. Many short and slender spikes with verticils of tightly held flowers give the plant its specific epithet polystachia. The leaves are yellow-green, 1 in (2.5 cm) long and wide, and grow in small clusters.
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Taxonomy
The species was first described by Antonio José Cavanilles in 1791 using the spelling Salvia polystachia. As of May 2024, this was the spelling used by Plants of the World Online, the International Plant Names Index, and Tropicos. In 1798, Casimiro Gómez Ortega published a description of the species which explicitly referred to Cavanilles' name, but spelt the epithet polystachya. Tropicos regards this as an illegitimate homonym ("nom. illeg. hom.") of Cavanilles' name. Other sources use Ortega's spelling for the epithet; for example, "Salvia polystachya Ort." was used by Calzada et al. in 2010.
To add to the potential confusion, in 1844, Martin Martens and Henri Guillaume Galeotti published the name Salvia polystachya for a different species. As of May 2024, Plants of the World Online regarded this as an illegitimate synonym of Salvia xalapensis.
Phytochemistry
From the aerial parts of Salvia polystachia five neo-clerodane diterpenoids, polystachynes A-E, have been isolated. The structures were established by spectroscopic methods. Other clerodanes such as salvifaricin, linearolactone and dehydrokerlin were also isolated.