Salvia runcinata is a species of southern African sage commonly called the hard sage (â³hardesalieâ³ in Afrikaans). It is present in all provinces of South Africa, as well as in Lesotho, south-eastern Botswana, and western Zimbabwe. Its habitats are usually grassy; tend towards having heavy, damp soils; and may be cultivated, overgrazed, or otherwise disturbed.
Salvia runcinata is a perennial, erect herb tall, with one to several stems arising from a taproot or occasionally from a creeping rootstock. Stems are hispid to crisply hairy and gland-dotted.
Leaves are shortly petiolate, the upper sometimes sessile; the blade is runcinate-pinnatipartite to lyrate, rarely almost entire, oblong-lanceolate to obovate in outline, or more long by or more wide, rough-hairy and gland-dotted, with rounded to triangular lobes.
The inflorescence consists of several to many verticillasters, widely spaced below and denser above, each bearing 4âÂÂ8 flowers. The calyx is roughly hairy and gland-dotted, long.
The corolla is white or pale blue to mauve or purplish, long; the tube is long, the upper lip straight, and the lower lip usually slightly longer.
Salvia runcinata flowers from October to April.
Salvia runcinata is extremely variable in form, and its limits as a species are not well understood. Its closest ally is S. stenophylla, and it can be very difficult distinguishing some forms of it from that species or from S. repens. In his revision of Salvia in Africa, the botanist Ian Hedge argued that â³the range of variation suggests that hybridisation and introgression may be a factor in the confusion.â³
On the whole, S. stenophylla tends to have narrower leaves with finer segments and stems that are close to glabrous. S. repens has a creeping rootstock, which S. runcinata rarely has, and itâ²s less likely to be found in arid areas.
The species name â³runcinataâ³ is derived from the Latin word for â³saw-toothedâ³, and refers to the plantâ²s leaf margins, which have teeth pointing backward toward the base.