Flora-Fauna

Salvia rosmarinus Spenn.

(First published in Handbuch der Angewandten Botanik 2: 447; 1835)

• Life-form & habit: Evergreen, aromatic shrub 50–150 cm tall, with woody, much-branched stems; young shoots densely pubescent, becoming glabrous with age.
• Leaves: Opposite, sessile to shortly petiolate; blades narrowly linear to linear-lanceolate, 20–40 × 2–5 mm, revolute on margins; upper surface dark green, glabrous; lower surface whitish, tomentose, strongly aromatic when crushed.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal racemose to paniculate clusters of bilabiate flowers, usually blue to violet, rarely white or pink. Calyx campanulate, bilabiate, pubescent; corolla 8–12 mm, bilabiate with upper lip concave and lower lip spreading. Stamens 2, exserted.
• Fruit: Dry schizocarp splitting into 4 smooth nutlets, brown.
• Phenology: Flowers mainly from March to May, fruits in summer.
• Habitat & ecology: Characteristic of dry, rocky slopes, coastal garrigue and maquis, thriving on calcareous soils; tolerant of drought and salt spray. Widely cultivated for culinary, medicinal, and ornamental uses.
• Native range: Mediterranean basin: Albania, Algeria, Baleares, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Libya, Morocco, NW Balkan Peninsula, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey (POWO).
• Introduced range: Azores, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Kriti, Krym, Madeira, Mexico (Central, Southwest), Texas, Trinidad-Tobago, Lebanon (POWO). 

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Most probably occurring as a subspontaneous element in Lebanon.