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Salvia castanea; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-08-02

Salvia castanea Diels

Lamiaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +2

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Sow seed
Salvia castanea, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSalvia castanea, photograph (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY)Salvia castanea, photograph peganum from Henfield, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-16.2°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
15°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,337mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–42DLI
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 summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Salvia castanea is a herbaceous perennial plant discovered in the Yunnan Valley in China in 1904 by plant collector George Forrest. It also grows in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. The plants used in horticulture today likely came from seed collected from a plant at 14,000 ft in Nepal, at the base of Mt. Everest. It grows 3 ft tall in the wild, and 1–2 feet in cultivation in Europe and the U.S. The few 1.0–1.5 in flowers grow in whorls on an inflorescence about 1 ft long. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Salvia castanea", 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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (923 mm of 1,241 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 10.8 °C against a yearly mean of 2.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,241 mm in the median year at the habitat, 923 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 265 mm, driest month December at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 764 mm to 1,906 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,337 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,241 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: 23 to 42 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -16.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -19.3 °C to -3.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 15.0 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -16.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 69% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

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

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Salvia castanea through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 15 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -16.2 °C; 1,241 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 23–42RH 58–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-3 / -6–8-2 / -6–101 / -3–135 / 1–169 / 5–1813 / 9–1915 / 11–1915 / 11–1913 / 9–178 / 4–142 / -1–11-1 / -5–8
Night °C-16 / -19–-3-12 / -17–-2-7 / -12–1-2 / -7–41 / -3–86 / 2–118 / 4–128 / 4–116 / 1–100 / -5–7-9 / -13–1-13 / -18–-2
Rain mm10 / 5–2016 / 6–4439 / 15–7058 / 25–105101 / 59–151234 / 140–290265 / 178–468226 / 154–342198 / 118–25376 / 42–11512 / 6–256 / 4–15
DLI26 / 23–2931 / 27–3537 / 34–4342 / 37–4939 / 35–4634 / 30–4032 / 29–3731 / 30–3627 / 25–3326 / 22–3224 / 22–2823 / 20–26
RH %58 / 52–6560 / 51–6460 / 52–6561 / 54–6663 / 57–6766 / 62–7169 / 65–7568 / 65–7468 / 65–7264 / 60–6761 / 56–6560 / 53–65

The daily extremes were not used: the record low, -15.5 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, -16.2 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -15.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells holding the 17 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 1205:5494 (29.725, 94.725). 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 13 distinct grid cells holding 17 of the 17 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1205:5494 (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 29.50_95.000, lapse-corrected +117 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3658 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal · 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 marker27.282, 100.852 · in the densest population, 35 records (71% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 49 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 17 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 19 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 560 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 32 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 4° block of the 49 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 castanea, photograph 1did not loadSalvia castanea, photograph 2did not loadSalvia castanea, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY); peganum from Henfield, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Salvia przewalskii Salvia przewalskii Ganzi Danshen Photo: CC BY, Jiao Sun (孙娇) Primula chungensis Primulaceae Picea likiangensis Picea likiangensis Likiang spruce Photo: CC BY, Ryan McMindsRhododendron wardii Rhododendron wardii Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossPaeonia ludlowii Paeonia ludlowii Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGClethra delavayi Clethra delavayi Clethraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, peganum from Henfield, England

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 argentea Salvia argentea Silver sage Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeanette ClarkeSalvia arizonica Salvia arizonica Desert indigo sage Photo: CC BY, Sam Kieschnick Salvia aucheri Waving Sage Salvia aurea Salvia aurea Brown Sage Photo: CC BY, jk6000 all 226 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Salvia castanea f. castanea; Salvia castanea f. glabrescens; Salvia castanea f. pubescens; Salvia castanea f. tomentosa. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
Diels
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya +1
Wild records
49 in range · 19 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 29.50_95.000, lapse-corrected +117 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the record low, -15.5 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, -16.2 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give, so no cold floor is shown
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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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