14,00 zł – 59,00 zł
Medium-sized perennial plant species with dark purple flowers. Woodland sage is the high value plant for bees and other pollinators, i.a. because of its long flowering period from May to August. Wild, non-cultivar seeds.
SKU: N062
Polish name: Mossy sage
Latin Name: Salvia nemorosa L.
Family: the mint family Lamiaceae
Status in Poland: native in the south-east as a relic of warmer phases of the climate, in other parts of Poland only cultivated and in some places feral
The medium-sized perennial with purple-tinted stems and dark purple flowers.
The roots typical for the genus, thick and tapering. The flowering shoots of this species erect and firm, not decumbent, or hanging, unlike common sage S. officinalis.
Woodland sage has several types of leaves, the lower ones are the greatest, with impressive petioles, medium with short petioles, the upper ones completely sessile. All leaves have in common an ovate-oblong shape, a dense silvery tomentose on the underside of the blade, and a bare slightly notched blade on the surface with unevenly notched margins.
The flowers forms from late spring to early autumn and they are bisexual, pectinate, distinguish into calyx and corolla, purple in wild forms. They are distinguished from related species of sage by their upright arrangement in the inflorescence, a darker shade, and a deep red color of the bracts. Many varieties have been bred with pure white, salmon, blue, pink, magenta, or lighter shades of purple flowers.
The corolla of this plant is characterized by the lack of an inner ring of bristles, a slightly arching or even completely straight upper labium, a lower labium with three petals as well as inconspicuous and tightened lobes. The entire inflorescence usually consists of an over a dozen verticillastrums. Each of them clusters from 2 to 12 flowers.
The fruit of the woodland sage is a schizocarp, when ripes, will break into four dark brown, triangular-spherical mericarps.
Woodland sagelikes partial shade, and loose but fertile substrate with an alkaline reaction. It is sometimes damaged by frost and the Ice Saints if it is not covered or under snow.
It can be multiplied in May from seedlings or by dividing clumps in early autumn. It looks great on urban flower meadows, field margins in orchards, flower beds, and naturalistic compositions.
It tolerates heat and drought well, but if watered, it will be stronger and will provide more feed for insects.
Removing overblown inflorescences extends flowering.
Both in gardens and in natural locations, woodland sage is often crossed with meadow sage Salvia pratensis giving a hybrid known as “forest sage S.. x sylvestris“.
A great honey plant, valued for its long flowering period from May to August, and the abundant production of transparent nectar. Depending on the conditions, it gives between 100 and 300 kg of honey per hectare. During the drought nectarizing of woodland sage decreases drastically. This type of sage honey is traditionally produced in the Caucasian countries.
