Salvia aytachii

Salvia aytachii

Ay şalbası
Caespitose perennial herb with a woody rootstock. Stems ascending-erect, unbranched, 20-50 cm, glabrous above, with sparse simple and dendroid hairs below; Leaves mostly clustered at base of flowering shoots, simple, ovate-elliptic to suborbicular, rounded at base, 1.5-3 x 0.8-1.5 cm, rugose, crenulate, with dense adpressed hairs; petiole 1-3 cm, with dense dendroid hairs and long ciliae on margins. Verticillasters 4-8-flowered, distant. Bracts broadly ovate, 10-15 x 5-10 mm, sparsely simple and glandular hairy. Pedicels 6-7 rnrn, with spreading andr etrorse hairs, rarely glabrous. Calyx purplish-violet to yellowish-green,  campanulate, 16-18 rnm, to 20 mm in fruit. with sparse long simple eglandular hairs and short glandular hairs. Corolla whitish-pirik;23-25 mm; tube straight, c. 14 mm; upper lip ± straight Nutlets brown, ovoid, smooth, 4x3 mm. Fl. 5-7.Steppe, marly places and gypsum soils, 650-870 m.
Endemic. Ir.-Tur. element. Allied to S. cryptantha Montbret & Aucher ex Benth. , but differing in its glabrous stem, smaller and narrower leaves, more distant verticillasters, longer calyx, corolla and pedicels.