Perennial herb or subshrub to 1.5 m tall with white-hairy stems. Leaves linear to narrowly lanceolate, to 10 cm long, 2 cm wide, pointed, shallowly cut, rough and wrinkled above, softly white-hairy below. Flowers in groups of 6-8; late summer. Calyx violet. Corolla softly velvet-hairy, white or purple, tube about 1 cm long, curved; the impression is of mauve and white.
Mexico to tropical America
White-hairy stems.
There is considerable variation in flower colour and intensity. Some forms have white flowers, others pale mauve or violet.
Cases of fatal stock poisoning have occurred in NSW, where it is a garden escape in the Tweed River and Taree districts.
Source: (2002). Salvia. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.