Salvia aurita flowers

Salvia aurita grows its flowers in stem-tip racemes of up to 13 cm long. The flowers are positioned in spaced whorls of four to six with stem leaves among the flowers.

Flower colour may be white as in the photo, but also blue or lilac and sometimes with a little pink added. The calyx and corolla are both two-lipped and hairy. The corolla upper lip is narrow, curved down and hooded, the style protruding far from its tip. The lower lip is broad and nearly horizontal, two rounded lobes at its tip.

Flowering happens from mid-spring to early winter (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; JSTOR; http://pza.sanbi.org).