Salvia apiana Jeps.
Californian White Sage, Dwarf White Sage, White sage, bee sage
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Salvia apiana, the Californian white sage, bee sage, or sacred sage is an evergreen perennial shrub that is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, found mainly in the coastal sage scrub habitat of Southern California and Baja California, on the western edges of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.
Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia apiana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Salvia
Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the sage family Lamiaceae, with just under 1,000 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. Within the Lamiaceae, Salvia is part of the tribe Mentheae within the subfamily Nepetoideae. One of several genera commonly referred to as sage, it includes two widely used herbs, Salvia officinalis and Salvia rosmarinus.
Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Audibertia polystachya Benth.; Audibertiella polystachya (Benth.) Briq.; Ramona polystachya (Benth.) Greene; Salvia apiana var. compacta Munz; Salvia apiana var. typica Munz and 1 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Salvia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (271 mm of 372 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 372 mm a year, wettest February at 83 mm, driest June at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
372 mm a year at the habitat, 271 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 83 mm, driest June at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 287 mm to 573 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 53 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 1.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.5 °C, the absolute minimum -3.3 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.7 °C in December (across the envelope cells 2.4 °C to 9.2 °C), warmest day 30.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 57% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 17 / 14–18 | 17 / 14–19 | 18 / 16–20 | 21 / 18–23 | 23 / 20–26 | 27 / 22–31 | 30 / 24–33 | 30 / 25–33 | 29 / 25–31 | 24 / 22–27 | 20 / 17–22 | 17 / 13–18 |
| Night °C | 6 / 3–9 | 6 / 3–10 | 8 / 4–11 | 9 / 6–12 | 12 / 10–14 | 15 / 13–16 | 17 / 16–19 | 18 / 16–19 | 17 / 14–18 | 13 / 10–15 | 9 / 6–12 | 6 / 2–9 |
| Rain mm | 71 / 50–113 | 83 / 59–123 | 61 / 46–91 | 27 / 18–44 | 7 / 4–12 | 2 / 2–4 | 2 / 1–9 | 3 / 1–15 | 6 / 5–12 | 19 / 14–27 | 35 / 26–52 | 56 / 42–88 |
| DLI | 21 / 20–23 | 26 / 25–28 | 35 / 34–38 | 44 / 43–46 | 49 / 48–52 | 53 / 51–55 | 51 / 50–52 | 47 / 46–48 | 40 / 39–42 | 31 / 30–33 | 24 / 22–26 | 19 / 18–21 |
| RH % | 53 / 49–58 | 55 / 50–60 | 57 / 50–62 | 55 / 48–61 | 56 / 46–63 | 55 / 43–64 | 53 / 43–64 | 52 / 44–63 | 53 / 44–63 | 53 / 45–61 | 51 / 46–58 | 52 / 48–57 |
Each figure is the median across the 688 grid cells holding the 1677 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1116:1238 (34.175, -118.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 688 distinct grid cells holding the 1677 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1116:1238 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected +100 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 495 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Trevor Harding, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jesse Rorabaugh, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (5).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Salvia apiana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Crassula connata erect pygmyweed
Salvia clevelandii Cleveland Sage
Penstemon spectabilis Showy Beardtongue
Nolina cismontana Chaparral Nolina
Dudleya pulverulenta chalk dudleya
Eschscholzia californica California PoppyOther Salvia 27 in the reference
Salvia azurea Blue Sage
Salvia chamaedryoides Blue Oak Sage
Salvia clevelandii Cleveland Sage
Salvia coccinea Blood sage
Salvia elegans Pineapple Scented Sage
Salvia farinacea Mealy Blue Sage
Salvia greggii San Antone-oregano
Salvia guaranitica Anise-scented Sage
Salvia hispanica Chia
Salvia involucrata Roseleaf sage
Salvia lavanduloides Lavender Leaf Sage
Salvia leucantha Curacao Sage all 28 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 36 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.







