Salvia
mellifera
E. Greene
Black sage
Family: Lamiaceae
Habit:
Purple-flowered shrub, 1 to 2 m.; hairy, glandular.
Distribution: Commonly scattered about chaparral from coastal mesas, hills and
mountains in central western California to northern Baja
California, Mexico.
Seed unit: Nutlet, 2 to 3 mm.
Seed:
Ovoid compressed-triangular, surface marbled, spotted, brownish.
Embryo: Embryo spatulate, well-developed cotyledons, very little
or no endosperm.
Purity
instructions:
Pure seed definition:
AOSA: PSU#10 - Intact nutlet, whether or not a seed
is present. Piece of broken nutlet larger than one-half of the
original size, unless no seed is present. Seed, with or without
seed coat.
Lab notes: Mature-sized nutlets are
often empty.
Average
pure seed units per gram:
1,270 seeds per gram (based on AOSA pure seed units only from
107 samples received for testing from 1992 to 2002).
Range of
percent pure seed:
39% to 99%
Range of
percent inert:
1% to 60%
Description of inert:
Broken
seed, plant material.
Planting
instructions:
400
seeds, TB, 21 days @ 15° to 25°C; for fresh and dormant seed,
15°C and GA3 recommended.
References:
(link
to main reference page)
Hickman, J.C., Ed. 1993. p.
728.
Ransom Seed Laboratory
