Salvia clementae Pendry & Y.K.Wei

Pendry, Colin A & Wei, Yukun K, 2021, FLORA OF NEPAL NOTULAE I: TAXONOMIC NOTES ON NEPALESE SALVIA, Edinburgh Journal of Botany 78 (331), pp. 1-8 : 1-2

Salvia clementae Pendry & Y.K.Wei

Peter (1936) described Salvia campanulata var. hirtella E.Peter primarily on indumentum characters, but Clement (1999), in her account of Salvia for the Flora of Bhutan, noted that this taxon is distinct from both S. campanulata Wall. ex Benth. and S. castanea Diels , the other Bhutanese species it most resembles. Clement did not formally name this species but listed it as ‘ Salvia Species A’ in her accoUnt. The straight, pUrplish red corollas of these plants clearly distingUish them from the yellow-flowered Salvia campanulata , and they are easily separable from S. castanea , whose corollas are dark purple-brown, sigmoid and much larger (30–35 mm long versus 20–28 mm long). Furthermore, the leaves of the new taxon are broadly ovate with pronounced cordate bases and occasionally with slightly hastate upper leaves, whereas those of the other two species are more narrowly ovate, and are sometimes elliptic in Salvia castanea .

Clement suggested that more research would be necessary to ensure that the species had not been described elsewhere, but because no such description has been found, it has been decided to formally publish this species here. The name Salvia hirtella is not available, because it was used by Vahl to describe a Peruvian species ( Vahl, 1804), so this species is named S. clementae in recognition of Clement’s work on Himalayan Labiatae.

Salvia clementae is also found in Nepal, and most of the Nepalese specimens of S. clementae had previously been determined as S. hians Royle ex Benth. This name has been a source of considerable confusion, and it has also been misapplied to specimens of both Salvia castanea and S. przewalskii Maxim. (see below). Salvia hians has large (27–35 mm long), pUrplish blUe flowers with a conspicUoUs white lower lip and is a western Himalayan species that does not occur east of Mustang. Salvia przewalskii is Chinese species with pUrplish pink flowers similar to those of S. clementae, and although there are no published records of it from Nepal, L. S. Springate annotated several Nepalese specimens at E with this name. Salvia clementae and S. przewalskii are easily distinguished, because the leaves of the latter are much narrower and whitish tomentose below.