Salvia riparia

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Salvia riparia

Description

Erect, fetid herb, 0.5-1.5 m or more high. Leaves membranaceous, lanceolate-ovate to ovate, 1.5—6.5(—12) by 0.6-4(-5) cm, acute or obtuse, base cuneate or attenuate, narrowed into the petiole, entire; Flowers 2-3 or more in a verticillaster, in terminal spikes, 8-20 cm long.

Distribution

America present, Asia-Tropical: Lesser Sunda Is. (Bali present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), E. New Guinea present, Flores present, Lesser Sunda Is present, Northern America, Southern America: Peru (Peru present), Sumba present, Timor present, W.-E. Java present
Native of America (from Mexico to Peru and the West Indies), locally naturalized in Malesia: Sumatra, W.-E. Java, the Lesser Sunda Is. (Bali, Sumba, Flores, Timor), and E. New Guinea.

Uses

HEYNE (l.c.) records that this species is sometimes used as a ground-cover for heavy clay soils; the only drawback is that it cannot well stand the effect of slowly decaying leaves from surrounding shade trees.

Notes

Differs from S. misella KUNTH merely by the larger dimension of flower parts.

Citation

WELSEM 1913 – In: Trop. Natuur: 13
EPLING 1938: p. 16. – In: Fedde, Rep. Beih. 110: pl. 1, f. 2
BOLD. 1916: Zakfl.: 110
BACK. 1913 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Btzg: 29
BACK. 1931: Onkr. Suiker.: 562
DEN BERGER 1917 – In: Trop. Natuur: 101
BACK. & BAKH.f. 1965 – In: Fl. Java: 627
MEER MOHR 1938: p. 226. – In: Trop. Natuur: f. 2 & 3
WELSEM 1973: Atlas: t. 533
HEUBEL 1935 – In: Trop. Natuur: 119
HEYNE 1927: Nutt. Pl.: 1327
STEEN. 1938: pp. 1636-1640. – In: Bergcultures