Fibrous-rooted perennial 3-7 dm; stem branched above, softly villosulous; lvs chiefly cauline, lance-ovate or lance-triangular, 5-10 cm, crenate, truncate to subcordate at base, rugose and glabrescent above, canescent beneath; fls very numerous in crowded whorls of 2-6 subtended by ovate anthocyanic bracteal lvs 4-10 mm, the dense spike-like infl 1-2 dm; cal villous, 6-8 mm, the upper lip minutely 3-toothed, shorter than the lanceolate lobes of the lower lip; cor blue, 9-12 mm, the tube no longer than the cal; 2n=12, 14. Native of Europe and w. Asia, intr. in fields and waste places here and there in our range. June, July. (S. sylvestris, misapplied, the name properly applied to a hybrid of nos. 3 [Salvia nemorosa L.] and 4 [Salvia pratensis L.])

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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