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
