Salvia verticillata

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}

{{Speciesbox

|image = Salvia_verticillata_240606.jpg

|taxon = Salvia verticillata

|authority = L.

|}}

Salvia verticillata, the lilac sage{{PLANTS|id=SAVE5|taxon=Salvia verticillata|access-date=28 October 2015}} or whorled clary, is a herbaceous perennial native to a wide area ranging from central Europe to western Asia, and naturalized in northern Europe and North America. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.{{cite book|last1=Clebsch|first1=Betsy|last2=Barner|first2=Carol D.|title=The New Book of Salvias|publisher=Timber Press|date=2003|page=298|isbn=978-0-88192-560-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NM0iwB8GrQYC&pg=PA298}}

Salvia verticillata has a leafy base of mid-green leaves covered with hairs, putting up leaf-covered stems that carry {{convert|3|ft|m}} inflorescences. The tiny lavender flowers grow tightly packed in whorls, with tiny lime-green and purple calyces. The specific epithet verticillata refers to the whorls that grow in verticils. A cultivar introduced in the 1990s, 'Purple Rain', is much more showy and long-blooming, growing about {{convert|2|ft|m}} tall.