Species
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Salvia yangii B.T.Drew

Russian Sage, Russian Sage (EN), Silber-Perowskie (DE), Swanleaf Clouding Sage

Climate known 12 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 yangii, previously known as Perovskia atriplicifolia, and commonly called Russian sage, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant and subshrub. Although not previously a member of Salvia, the genus widely known as sage, since 2017 it has been included within them. It has an upright habit, typically reaching 0.5–1.2 metres tall, with square stems and gray-green leaves that yield a distinctive odor when crushed. It is best known for its flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Salvia yangii”, 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
B.T.Drew
Native to
Afghanistan, Tibet, Xinjiang +2
Wild records
69 in range· 18 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
573mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Mar 116 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–51DLI
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 winter growing season, December to May in the northern hemisphere (December to May at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 573 mm a year, wettest March at 116 mm, driest September at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 51 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -13.9 °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 Perovskia atriplicifolia Benth.; Perovskia pamirica C.Y.Yang & B.Wang.

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 May in the northern hemisphere (December to May 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 (421 mm of 573 mm) falls in December to May, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 4.2 °C against a yearly mean of 10.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to November.

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 573 mm a year, wettest March at 116 mm, driest September at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

573 mm a year at the habitat, 421 mm of it December to May. Wettest month March at 116 mm, driest September at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 334 mm to 1213 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: 21 to 51 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 51 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 52).

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 -13.9 °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 -13.9 °C, the absolute minimum -27.6 °C, about 94 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -10.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -16.6 °C to -0.6 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.9 °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: 45 to 54% 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 1 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -10 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 573 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 46 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost32.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 21–51RH 45–54 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 46 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 °C1 / -6–112 / -6–138 / 0–1816 / 9–2422 / 17–3026 / 21–3328 / 23–3227 / 22–3123 / 19–2818 / 13–2412 / 6–195 / -2–14
Night °C-10 / -17–-1-9 / -15–1-3 / -11–53 / -4–108 / 2–1512 / 6–1915 / 10–2114 / 10–2111 / 5–175 / -1–110 / -6–6-7 / -13–2
Rain mm60 / 34–8380 / 57–113116 / 76–16674 / 50–13151 / 27–9831 / 12–10436 / 8–18535 / 5–21714 / 5–9617 / 9–4519 / 11–3340 / 22–59
DLI23 / 20–2630 / 25–3236 / 32–4044 / 40–4749 / 46–5151 / 47–5249 / 38–5145 / 35–4840 / 34–4232 / 28–3525 / 22–2721 / 18–23
RH %52 / 49–5753 / 50–5854 / 52–5852 / 49–5547 / 43–5445 / 40–5346 / 42–6147 / 42–6346 / 37–5846 / 40–5349 / 45–5151 / 48–54

Each figure is the median across the 46 grid cells holding the 46 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 1085:4987 (35.725, 69.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.8 °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 46 distinct grid cells holding the 46 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1085:4987 (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 35.50_69.375, lapse-corrected -945 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1986 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.
NativeAfghanistan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Pakistan, West Himalaya· introduced: Austria, Germany, New Mexico
Kew's description“subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.477, 69.389 · in the densest population, 38 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 69 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 18 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 37 km away. 266 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 23 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 69 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Salvia yangiiSalvia yangiiSalvia yangiiSalvia yangiiSalvia yangiiSalvia yangiiSalvia yangiiSalvia yangii

Photographs: (c) Pavel Kacl, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; Dieter Bausenwein, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); Naturgucker Tom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Anne K., CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Michael Bohmann, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Claudia Kirschner, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Light Intensity and Temperature Effect on Salvia yangii (B. T. Drew) Metabolic Profile in vitro
Weronika Kozłowska, Adam Matkowski, Sylwia Zielińska (2022) · Frontiers in Plant Science
The complete chloroplast genome of Russian sage Salvia yangii B. T. Drew (Lamiaceae)
Mengting Cao, Junjie Wu, Rui-Hong Wang, Ling Xu (2020) · Mitochondrial DNA Part B
Evaluation of Salvia yangii Extract as a Promising Protective Raw Material Applied Topically to the Skin
Monika Michalak, Martyna Zagórska-Dziok, Paulina Żarnowiec, Aneta Ostróżka-Cieślik (2025) · Molecules
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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