Species
+

Salvia greggii A.Gray

Autumn sage, San Antone-oregano, autumn sage

Climate known 73 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 greggii, the autumn sage, is a herbaceous perennial plant native to a long, narrow area from southwest Texas, through the Chihuahuan Desert and into the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, typically growing in rocky soils at elevations from 5,000 to 9,000 ft. It was named and described in 1870 by botanist Asa Gray after Josiah Gregg (1806–1850), a merchant, explorer, naturalist, and author from the American Southwest and Northern Mexico, who found and collected the plant in Texas. It is closely related to, and frequently hybridizes with, Salvia microphylla. Despite the common name "autumn sage", it blooms throughout the summer and autumn.

Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia greggii”, 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.

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
A.Gray
Native to
Texas, Mexico Northeast
Wild records
482 in range· 278 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
May, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
511mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jul 86 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Salvia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 511 mm a year, wettest July at 86 mm, driest March at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

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 summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (361 mm of 511 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.4 °C against a yearly mean of 16.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 511 mm a year, wettest July at 86 mm, driest March at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

511 mm a year at the habitat, 361 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 86 mm, driest March at 13 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 376 mm to 892 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: 25 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 46 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 50).

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 -3.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.3 °C, the absolute minimum -9.5 °C, about 21 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.7 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 27.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.3 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 47 to 59% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Jan to 27 °C in May; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 511 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 325 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 25–46RH 47–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 325 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 13–1919 / 15–2222 / 18–2525 / 21–2827 / 22–3127 / 21–3326 / 21–3426 / 20–3424 / 19–3123 / 18–2720 / 16–2217 / 14–20
Night °C4 / 1–65 / 2–87 / 4–1110 / 7–1513 / 9–1915 / 10–2215 / 10–2315 / 10–2414 / 10–2111 / 7–167 / 4–114 / 2–7
Rain mm24 / 15–4614 / 8–4713 / 5–6327 / 8–5950 / 16–9768 / 45–10986 / 54–12476 / 50–11881 / 52–14542 / 30–9514 / 10–5716 / 11–49
DLI27 / 20–3032 / 24–3640 / 30–4444 / 37–4846 / 39–5045 / 42–4843 / 41–4541 / 40–4336 / 34–3833 / 27–3528 / 21–3225 / 18–28
RH %51 / 47–5750 / 44–5747 / 41–5649 / 40–5652 / 42–6056 / 47–6057 / 51–6157 / 52–6159 / 54–6456 / 50–6152 / 47–5851 / 47–58

Each figure is the median across the 325 grid cells holding the 465 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 1299:1580 (25.025, -100.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °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 325 distinct grid cells holding the 465 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1299:1580 (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 25.00_-101.250, lapse-corrected +157 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2130 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas, Mexico Northeast
Kew's description“subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.286, -100.621 · in the densest population, 220 records (46% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 482 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 278 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12 km away. 66 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 482 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Salvia greggiiSalvia greggiiSalvia greggiiSalvia greggiiSalvia greggiiSalvia greggiiSalvia greggiiSalvia greggii

Photographs: (c) Ricardo Jaimes-López, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Oscar C. González Martínez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Francisco Martínez González, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Oscar Israel Rodríguez Ortiz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 greggii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Chemical Composition and Antigerminative Activity of the Essential Oils from Five Salvia Species
Laura De Martino, Graziana Roscigno, Emilia Mancini, Enrica De Falco (2010) · Molecules
Diterpenoids from Salvia greggii
Maurizio Bruno, Giuseppe Savona, Francisco Fernández‐Gadea, Rodríguez Benjamin (1986) · Phytochemistry
Diterpenoid glucosides from Salvia greggii
Nobuo Kawahara, Toru Tamura, Mayumi Inoue, Tomoo Hosoe (2004) · Phytochemistry
Green Synthesis of Novel Silver Nanoparticles Using Salvia blepharophylla and Salvia greggii: Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Potential and Effect on Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens
Addisie Geremew, John Gonzalles, Elisha Peace, Selamawit Woldesenbet (2024) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Ultrastructural insight into terpene-producing trichomes and essential oil profile in Salvia greggii A. Gray
Claudia Giuliani, Roberta Ascrizzi, Sara Corrà, Laura Bini (2017) · Flora
Diterpenoid from Salvia greggii
Nobuo Kawahara, Mayumi Inoue, K. Kawai, Setsuko Sekita (2003) · Phytochemistry
Influence of nutrient salts, auxins and cytokinins on the in vitro growth of Salvia greggii
John F. Frett (1987) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Aroma Profile, Chemical Composition and Antiproliferative Activity of the Hydrodistilled Essential Oil of a Rare Salvia Species (Salvia greggii)
Ismail F. Abaza, Nour Aboalhaija, Al-Hasan Alsalman, Wamidh H. Talib (2021) · Journal of Biologically Active Products from Nature
First Report of a Leaf Spot Caused by Boeremia exigua var. linicola on Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) in Italy and Worldwide
A. Garibaldi, G. Gilardi, Sara Franco Ortega, M. L. Gullino (2016) · Plant Disease
Foliar micromorphology of Salvia greggii A. Gray (Lamiaceae)
Lwandiso Dyubeni (2012) · African Journal of Plant Science

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.

Other Salvia 27 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.