Wednesday 22 April 2009

Salvia confertiflora


Salvia confertiflora
Curtis's Botanical Magazine Vol 68 Nº 3899 (1842)

Salvia confertiflora, Pohl,

Pl. Brasil. Icon. Descr. 2. p. 134. t. 190 (1833)
Benth. Lab. p. 276
Lindl. Bot. Reg. vol. 25. t. 29

An extremely beautiful Brazilian Sage, at least the variety here represented is of that character. Pohl, the original discoverer (among shrubs in the Serra d'Estrella and in the Padre Correa, Brazil) and describer of this plant, distinguishes two states of it; the one corollis flavidis, the kind he figures, and the other corollis rubellis. But the blossoms of our Salvia are of a much more beautiful colour than even the latter name would indicate: these corollas are likewise longer, more protruded from the calyx, and the leaves are more acuminated than in his figure. It was discovered in the Organ Mountains of Brazil, and by him sent to the Glasgow and other Botanic Gardens, where it has flowered during the autumnal months; and though able to bear the open border in the summer months, yet it comes to greater perfection in a warm greenhouse.


Descr. Plant three to four feet high, shrubby, everywhere more or less pubescenti-hirsute. Stem quadrangular, thickened and reddish at the angles. Lower leaves very large, six inches and upwards long, all of them ovate, petiolate, acuminate, coarsely serrated, wrinkled, beneath tomentose and pale. Raceme spiciform, very long, composed of numerous whorls of rather small and nearly sessile, bright-red flowers. Calyx deeply tinged with red, densely clothed, as is the corolla, with velvety hairs or tomentum. Corolla more than twice as long as the calyx, clavate, shortly two-lipped, very obtuse; lips nearly equal, both of them very concave; upper one entire, lower cut into three incurved lobes, of which the middle one is the longest and entire. Anthers with the clubbed apex of their connectivum conjoined.


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