Citation: L., Sp. Pl. edn 2:38 (1762).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Golden salvia.

Description:
Shrubs to 1.5 m high, much-branched, with quadrangular branches soon becoming terete and woody, densely tomentose with short simple hairs and interspersed sessile glands; leaves with a petiole 2-6 mm long; blade ovate to almost circular, 1-3.2 x 1-2 cm, obtuse or rounded rarely acute, abruptly constricted towards the base, entire and often undulate, with 3-5 main veins from the base.

Inflorescence a thyrse without a distinct peduncle, with sessile cymose part-inflorescences usually with single flowers in the axil of the bract which is shorter than the calyx, with internodes between flowering nodes scarcely elongated; sepals unequally connate, 14-veined, 10-13 mm long or to 20 mm and tinged purplish in fruit, 2-lipped with the posterior lip broad with broader lateral lobes and smaller central one, with the anterior lip broadly 2-lobed, with short and long hairs and many sessile glands; corolla rusty-brown, with a few simple hairs and scattered sessile glands, 2-lipped with the posterior lip longer than the tube, the anterior one about as long as the tube, 3.5-4.5 mm long, with the posterior lip erect, hooded and scarcely 2-lobed, with the anterior lip broadly cuneate with lateral lobes strongly recoiled, with the central lobe scarcely 2-lobed; stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla tube, with filaments glabrous but corolla tube around them hairy; anthers with 1 cell fertile at the end of a long connective continued downwards into a slightly flattened part without a sterile second cell, with fertile cells enclosed in the hood of the posterior lip'; ovary on a thick disc, deeply 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base and curved along the posterior lip of the corolla, usually with an unequally 2-fid stigma.

Mericarps broadly obovoid, c. 4 mm long, triangular in section but not keeled, with the attachment scar protruding, circular, basal, smooth.

Image source: fig. 557C in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Kidd (1950) Wildflowers of the Cape Peninsula, pl. 54, 7.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: SL.   Vic.   Native to coastal areas of the south-western Cape Province, South Africa. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Aug. — Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available