Common Name: Balsamic Sage

General Information

Salvia tomentosa is a much-branched perennial plant with stems that become more or less woody and persist; it can grow up to 100cm tall[]..
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Europe to western Asia - Balkans, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Krym, Transcaucasus, Turey, Syria.

Habitat

Often found with Pinus brutia, Pinus nigra and Quercus pubescens in macchie, on limestone or igneous slopes; at elevations up to 2,000 metres in Turkey[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Habit	Shrub
Height	0.80 m
Pollinators	Bees
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Salvia tomentosa is a moderately cold-hardy plant, able to tolerate temperatures down to around -20°c when fully dormant[].
Requires a well-drained soil in a sunny position[].
As hardy as the common sage, Salvia officinalis[], to which it is closely related[].
Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer[].

Edible Uses

The leaves are used as a condiment[, ].

A tea is made from the plant[]. In England this tea used to be preferred to that of all other sage teas[].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed - sow early to mid spring in a greenhouse[]. Germination usually takes place within 2 weeks. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and plant them out in early summer. In areas where the plant is towards the limits of its hardiness, it is best to grow the plants on in a greenhouse for their first winter and plant them out in late spring of the following year.
Cuttings of half-ripe wood succeed at almost any time in the growing season[].