Species
+

Salvia microphylla Kunth

Baby Sage, Baby sage (EN); Johannisbeer-Salbei (DE); Salvia granadina (ES), Blackcurrant Sage, Graham's Sage

Climate known 65 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 microphylla, synonyms including Salvia grahamii, Salvia lemmonii and Salvia neurepia; the baby sage, Graham's sage, or blackcurrant sage, is an evergreen shrub found in the wild in southeastern Arizona and the mountains of eastern, western, and southern Mexico. It is a very complex species which easily hybridizes, resulting in numerous hybrids and cultivars brought into horticulture since the 1990s. The specific epithet microphylla, from the Greek, means "small leaved". In Mexico it is called mirto de montes, or "myrtle of the mountains".

Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia microphylla”, 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
Kunth
Native to
Arizona, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +5
Wild records
963 in range· 436 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
May, mean day; nights 11 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
713mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jul 135 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–45DLI
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, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 713 mm a year, wettest July at 135 mm, driest December at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.6 °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.

Also known as Lasemia coccinea Raf.; Lesemia coccinea Raf.; Salvia gasterantha Briq.; Salvia grahamii Benth.; Salvia lemmonii A.Gray and 7 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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June 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 (506 mm of 713 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.1 °C against a yearly mean of 15.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December 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 713 mm a year, wettest July at 135 mm, driest December at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

713 mm a year at the habitat, 506 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 135 mm, driest December at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 489 mm to 1375 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: 29 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 45 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

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 -1.6 °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 -1.6 °C, the absolute minimum -6.9 °C, about 10 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.5 °C to 8.0 °C), warmest day 24.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.6 °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: 49 to 64% 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 18 °C in Jan to 24 °C in May; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 12 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 713 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 543 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -6.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°frost27.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-6.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 29–45RH 49–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 543 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 °C18 / 14–2120 / 16–2322 / 18–2524 / 20–2724 / 21–2923 / 19–2921 / 18–2722 / 18–2721 / 18–2520 / 17–2419 / 16–2318 / 14–21
Night °C5 / 1–86 / 1–97 / 3–119 / 5–1311 / 8–1512 / 9–1612 / 9–1712 / 9–1611 / 9–159 / 7–137 / 3–116 / 1–9
Rain mm18 / 10–4514 / 10–3513 / 5–3127 / 8–5454 / 15–97119 / 64–233135 / 90–273130 / 78–253122 / 72–24556 / 34–11415 / 10–4610 / 6–45
DLI31 / 25–3337 / 30–3843 / 37–4545 / 40–4944 / 41–5140 / 36–4639 / 35–4338 / 35–4134 / 31–3733 / 29–3532 / 26–3429 / 23–32
RH %53 / 47–5951 / 46–5849 / 42–5750 / 41–5854 / 43–6161 / 51–6663 / 57–6963 / 57–6864 / 57–7061 / 53–6756 / 48–6354 / 48–60

Each figure is the median across the 543 grid cells holding the 933 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 1407:1647 (19.625, -97.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.5 °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 543 distinct grid cells holding the 933 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1407:1647 (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 19.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected +264 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2532 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.
NativeArizona, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala· introduced: Portugal, Spain, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand North, Texas, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Uruguay
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.504, -98.967 · in the densest population, 517 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 963 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 436 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 50 km away. 840 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 30 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 963 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Salvia microphyllaSalvia microphyllaSalvia microphyllaSalvia microphyllaSalvia microphyllaSalvia microphyllaSalvia microphyllaSalvia microphylla

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Diego López, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Bioactive Compounds and Aroma Profile of Some Lamiaceae Edible Flowers
Ilaria Marchioni, Basma Najar, B. Ruffoni, Andrea Copetta (2020) · Plants
Insights into the neuroprotective effects of Salvia officinalis L. and Salvia microphylla Kunth in the memory impairment rat model
Iriny M. Ayoub, Mina Y. George, Esther T. Menze, Maryhan Mahmoud (2022) · Food & Function
Anti-Iipase and antioxidant properties of 30 medicinal plants used in Oaxaca, México
Nemesio Villa‐Ruano, Guilibaldo Gabriel Zurita-Vásquez, Yesenia Pacheco‐Hernández, Martha G. Betancourt‐Jiménez (2013) · Biological Research
Electrochemical Quantification of the Antioxidant Capacity of Medicinal Plants Using Biosensors
Erika Rodríguez‐Sevilla, María-Teresa Ramírez-Silva, M. Romero‐Romo, Pedro Ibarra-Escutia (2014) · Sensors
Bactericidal and Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oils from Myristica fragrans Houtt and Salvia microphylla H.B.K
Rafaela Karin Lima, María das Graças Cardoso, Milene Aparecida Andrade, Paula Lasmar Guimarães (2011) · Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society
5,10-seco-neo-Clerodanes and neo-Clerodanes from Salvia microphylla
Elihú Bautista, Rubén A. Toscano, Alfredo Ortega (2014) · Journal of Natural Products
Constituents ofSalvia microphylla
Zeynep Aydoğmuş, Volkan Yesilyurt, Gülaçtı Topçu (2006) · Natural Product Research
Microphyllandiolide, a New Diterpene with an Unprecedented Skeleton from Salvia microphylla
Elihú Bautista, Rubén A. Toscano, Alfredo Ortega (2013) · Organic Letters
Juvenomimetic and Insecticidal Activities ofSenecio salignus(Asteraceae) andSalvia microphylla(Lamiaceae) onSpodoptera frugiperda(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
Diana Romo-Asunción, Marco Antonio Ávila-Calderón, Miguel Ángel Ramos-López, Juan Esteban Barranco-Florido (2016) · Florida Entomologist
The Diterpenoid Constituents of Salvia fulgens and Salvia microphylla
Baldomero Esquivel, Jorge Cárdenas, Lydia Rodríguez‐Hahn, T. P. Ramamoorthy (1987) · Journal of Natural Products
The Pimarane-Type Diterpenoids ofSalvia microphyllavar.neurepia1
Baldomero Esquivel, Nives del Socorro Martínez, Jorge Cárdenas, T. P. Ramamoorthy (1989) · Planta Medica

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 101 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.