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Salvia argentea; photograph (c) Barry Stewart, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Barry Stewart, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-28

Salvia argentea L.

Silver sage

Lamiaceae · Portugal, Spain +11 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Salvia argentea, photograph (c) Jeanette Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Salvia argentea, photograph (c) Jeanette Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Salvia argentea, photograph (c) Jeanette Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Salvia argentea, photograph (c) Gonzalo Ganda Álvarez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Salvia argentea, photograph (c) Gonzalo Ganda Álvarez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Salvia argentea, photograph (c) Barry Stewart, some rights reserved (CC BY) 92 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.4°C
Record low -9.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
591mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–50DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to February and April, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Salvia argentea, the silver sage, silver salvia, or silver clary, is a biennial or short-lived perennial plant that is native to an area in southern Europe from Portugal to Bulgaria. Its Latin specific epithet argentea means "silvery", referring to the colour of the leaves.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Salvia argentea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Salvia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Salvia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “biennial or perennial”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (412 mm of 578 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.9 °C against a yearly mean of 14.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October.

Rain

578 mm in the median year at the habitat, 412 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest month December at 90 mm, driest month July at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 407 mm to 955 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 591 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 578 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 50 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.4 °C, the absolute minimum -9.6 °C, 1,579 frost nights in 44 years, 35.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -3.6 °C to 6.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -83 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Salvia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “biennial or perennial”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Salvia argentea through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 1.5 °C; 578 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-9.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 13–50RH 48–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 633 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 4–1412 / 6–1615 / 9–1917 / 12–2021 / 17–2427 / 21–2930 / 25–3330 / 25–3326 / 20–2920 / 16–2314 / 10–1811 / 5–15
Night °C2 / -4–62 / -3–74 / -1–87 / 2–1010 / 6–1315 / 10–1718 / 13–2018 / 13–2015 / 10–1810 / 6–146 / 1–103 / -2–8
Rain mm61 / 34–10255 / 33–9048 / 28–8260 / 43–9047 / 32–7322 / 10–556 / 2–3910 / 5–4233 / 23–6967 / 43–10079 / 46–13690 / 50–149
DLI15 / 12–1821 / 18–2430 / 26–3337 / 33–4043 / 39–4548 / 43–5050 / 43–5144 / 38–4634 / 29–3624 / 20–2616 / 13–1913 / 10–15
RH %61 / 58–6459 / 57–6256 / 54–6056 / 53–5954 / 52–5951 / 47–5748 / 43–5549 / 44–5653 / 49–5957 / 55–6160 / 58–6363 / 59–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 633 grid cells holding the 896 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1002:3517 (39.875, -4.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 633 distinct grid cells holding 896 of the 896 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1002:3517 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.00_-4.375, lapse-corrected -83 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 487 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativePortugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, East Aegean Is., Turkey · introduced: Germany · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker40.364, -3.616 · in the densest population, 595 records (57% of those in range)
Kew's description“biennial or perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1051 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 896 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 326 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 31 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 155 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1051 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Salvia argentea, photograph 1did not loadSalvia argentea, photograph 2did not loadSalvia argentea, photograph 3did not loadSalvia argentea, photograph 4did not loadSalvia argentea, photograph 5did not loadSalvia argentea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jeanette Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Gonzalo Ganda Álvarez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Barry Stewart, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Lomelosia simplex Lomelosia simplex Star Scabious Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeCytisus fontanesii Cytisus fontanesii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Roland GreinwaldCarduncellus hispanicus Carduncellus hispanicus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Jorge ÍñiguezNarcissus munozii-garmendiae Narcissus munozii-garmendiae Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHelianthemum ledifolium Helianthemum ledifolium Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Bastien AlegotMoricandia moricandioides Moricandia moricandioides Purple Cabbage Photo: CC BY, Katrin Simon

Other Salvia 225 in the reference

Salvia abrotanoides Salvia abrotanoides Caspian Sage Photo: CC BY, Станислав ЧувановSalvia adenophora Salvia adenophora Oaxaca Red Sage Photo: CC BY-SA, Eugenio PadillaSalvia aethiopis Salvia aethiopis African sage Photo: CC BY, Aleksei BaushevSalvia africana Salvia africana African Blue Sage Photo: CC BY, Ryan RattraySalvia amethystina Salvia amethystina Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeSalvia amplexicaulis Salvia amplexicaulis Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonSalvia angustiarum Salvia angustiarum Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSalvia apiana Salvia apiana White sage Photo: CC BY, Trevor HardingSalvia arizonica Salvia arizonica Desert indigo sage Photo: CC BY, Sam Kieschnick Salvia aucheri Waving Sage Salvia aurea Salvia aurea Brown Sage Photo: CC BY, jk6000Salvia aurita Salvia aurita African Blue Sage Photo: CC BY-SA, Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan all 226 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Salvia alpestris; Salvia argentea subsp. patula; Salvia argentea var. aurasiaca; Salvia argentea var. fontanesiana; Salvia argentea var. gussonei and 11 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Portugal, Spain, Albania +10
Wild records
1051 in range · 326 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 35 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (30 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.00_-4.375, lapse-corrected -83 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 70 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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