Salvia dorisiana

Description

Salvia dorisiana, the fruit-scented sage or peach sage, is a perennial shrub native to Honduras. It grows 1–1.3 m tall, and is heavily branched. The leaves have a fruity scent when brushed, and large magenta-pink flowers that bloom in winter. Salvia dorisiana was first described in 1950, and has become popular as a greenhouse plant. The flowers reach up to 5 cm in length, with a lime-green calyx about the same length. The entire plant is covered in hairs whose glands release a pineapple-grapefruit scent. Salvia dorisiana was named for Doris Zemurray Stone, 1909–1994, archaeologist and ethnographer and director of the national museum of Costa Rica, though many horticulture references apocryphally repeat that it was named after Doris, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and the wife of Nereus. Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the sage family Lamiaceae, with nearly 1000 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. Within the Lamiaceae, Salvia is part of the tribe Mentheae within the subfamily Nepetoideae. One of several genera commonly referred to as sage, it includes two widely used herbs, Salvia officinalis (common sage, or just "sage") and Salvia rosmarinus (rosemary, formerly Rosmarinus officinalis). The genus is distributed throughout the Old World and the Americas (over 900 total species), with three distinct regions of diversity: Central America and South America (approximately 600 species); Central Asia and the Mediterranean (250 species); Eastern Asia (90 species). The name Salvia derives from Latin salvia (sage), from salvus (safe, secure, healthy), an adjective related to salūs (health, well-being, prosperity or salvation), and salvēre (to feel healthy, to heal). Pliny the Elder was the first author known to describe a plant called "Salvia" by the Romans, likely describing the type species for the genus Salvia, Salvia officinalis.