Salvia roemeriana Scheele, cedar sage. Perennial herb, taprooted, rosetted, 1—several–stemmed at base, ascending, to 65 cm tall; shoots with basal leaves and cauline leaves, foliage velveteen with scattered minute glandular hairs.
Stems 4–sided, to 5 mm diameter, 4–angled, tough, purple–red, short soft–hairy or with scattered long soft hairs (pilose) and with subsessile glandular hairs.
Leaves opposite decussate, pinnately–1—3–foliolate (simple leaf = terminal lobe), petiolate with pair connected as ledges across node, without stipules; petiole channeled, to 100 mm long, purplish, flaring at base, villous and short–villous with scattered long hairs to 2 mm long; rachis channeled, to 20 mm long; petiolules of lateral leaflets channeled, mostly ⊥ rachis, to 4 mm long, with swelling in upper axil; blade of lateral leaflet asymmetric, ± roundish in outline, shallowly lobed and often with basal lobe below midblade, to 25 × 25 mm, somewhat roundish at tip, of terminal leaflet symmetric, ovate to heart–shaped with overlapping basal lobes, to 50 × 55 mm, cordate at base, wavy on margins, roundish at tip, pinnately veined with principal veins sunken on upper surface and raised on lower surface.
Inflorescence paired cymes = loose clusters of flowers at 10+ nodes (verticils), cyme 3–flowered, bracteate, glandular–hairy; peduncle stemlike, to 110 mm long, at anthesis 4—7 mm diameter; internodes of rachis to 65 mm long; bract subtending cyme sessile, leaflike, broadly lanceolate, 5.5—8 × 2.5—3 mm, acuminate to acute at tip, glandular–hairy; bractlet subtending pedicel decreasing from bract; pedicel slender, at anthesis to 4 mm long increasing 2× and persistent and spreading in fruit, densely short–hairy and with stalked, purple–red glandular hairs; flower when abscised from top of pedicel.
Flower bisexual, bilateral, ca. 5 mm across (calyx); calyx 2–lipped, 5–lobed, green with purple along ridges and tips; tube funnel–shaped, 5–ridged, ca. 11 mm long and 4.5 mm at orifice, 15–veined, short–hirsute at base with some hairs along veins and ridges becoming veiny in fruit, with subsessile glandular hairs, inner surface glabrous; upper lip 3–lobed, lobes acuminate with needlelike points at tip, ± 15.5 mm long including point ca. 1.2 mm long; lower lip slightly notched (2–lobed), ± truncate, ca. 3 mm long, with needlelike tips < 1 mm long; corolla 2–lipped, crimson; tube + throat curved on upper side, to 17 mm long, gradually expanded from 1.7 mm diameter at base to 6.5 mm diameter at orifice, ridged and somewhat pleated, lacking glandular hairs; lips ca. 11.5 mm long, upper lip 2–lobed, horizontal, ± 7 mm long, truncate and slightly notched to 2 mm deep, lower lip 3–lobed, with calyx tube to midpoint, lobes ca. 3 × 5 mm, with some hairs on upper surface; stamens 2, fused to corolla on lower side, diverging upward from near the orifice to upper lip; fused portion raised and thickened to 0.8 mm at free portion, stalk below anther fork ca. 9 mm long and forks ca. 1 mm long (split connection), rose–red; anthers sacs dimorphic on each stamen, 2 and 2.8 mm long, rose–red, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen pick to whitish; nectary disc beneath ovary. enlarged and surrounding lobe base, 1 × 1.3 mm, light green; pistil 1; ovary superior, deeply 4–lobed, lobes oblong to obovoid, ca. 0.7 × 0.4 mm, glossy green, glabrous, each lobes with 1 ovule; style arising between ovary lobes at base (gynobasic), exserted on upper side to 8 mm from upper corolla lip, to 44 mm long, pink at base to rose–red at tip, unequally 2–branched, upper branch ca. 1.5 mm long and lower branch ca. 2.5 mm long, branches stigmatic, slender, 0.4—0.45 mm diameter.
Fruits nutlets, (2—)3—4, oblong 3–sided, ± 2.2 × 1.4 mm, rounded on back and with 2 flat faces, rounded on base and top.
A. C. Gibson