Salvia aurita L.F.

Perennial herb with few to several stems from a subwoody base; stems ascending or straggling to 1.2 m long, pilose, usually with longish multicellular hairs, sometimes dense, or short and dense, gland-dotted and occasionally with capitate glandular hairs. Leaves petiolate, or the upper ones subsessile; blade simple to lyrate or runcinate, subcoriaceous, variable in shape from broadly ovate to ovate or oblong, 40-80 x 25-50 mm, suglabrous to fairly densely pilose, gland-dotted, apex obtuse to rounded, base truncate to auriculate, margin dentate or crenate, sometimes pinnatipartite or with distinct basal lobes (var. galpinii). Inflorescence of up to 15 verticils, the lower ones often widely spaced, denser above; verticils 6-8(-12)-flowered. Calyx pilose, tubular-campanulate, up to 10 mm long in fruit; upper lip with 3 acuminate teeth, the 2 outer teeth c. 2.5 mm long and the central tooth shorter, 1.5-2 mm long. Corolla pale blue, lilac, white or pinkish, 16-20 mm long; tube 10-15 mm long; upper lip straight, 2.5-3 mm long; lower lip up to 4 mm long.

It is a subtropical plant.