Salvia verbenaca Linnaeus, 1753

Hu, Guo-Xiong & Peng, Hua, 2015, Identity of Salvia weihaiensis (Lamiaceae) from China, Phytotaxa 202 (4), pp. 298-300 : 299

Salvia verbenaca Linnaeus —Type (Lectotype): plate t. 208 (icon) ( Barrelier 1714) was designated as the lectotype of S. verbenaca by Del Carratore et al. (1998).

= Salvia weihaiensis C.Y. Wu & H.W. Li —Type: CHINA. Shandong: Weihai, seashores, 6 June 1959, Shandong wild plant expedition 3 (holotype KUN!) syn. nov.

For a thorough list of synonyms see Del Carratore et al. (1998).

Note:— Salvia verbenaca was described from Europe. It is widely distributed to southern and western Europe, northern Africa, Near East and Caucasus, and naturalized in America, southern Africa, New Zealand and Australia ( Hedge 1982). Weihai is so far the only locality in China with field record for S. verbenaca . In June 2014, we attempted to search the species in Weihai and its adjacent areas. Unfortunately, we were unable to find living plants of any Salvia species in these areas despite our repeated efforts. According to a specimen (deposited in PE, 20 September, 1957, Pasture expedition 378) collected from the nursery in Institute of Botany, CAS, where various economic plants were cultivated, S. verbenaca may have been introduced to China probably as an spice plant ( Pobedimova 1954). Historically, S. coccinea and S. tiliifolia were introduced to China, and then naturalized successfully ( Li & Hedge 1994, Hu et al. 2013). Therefore, we infer that a few wild individuals of S. verbenaca occurring in Weihai may have resulted from their escape from the nursery, but the species failed to establish in the wild.