''Salvia ringens'' is a hardy herbaceous perennial native to the southern and eastern parts of the

Balkan Peninsula The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. With many colonies growing on

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

, the traditional "home of the gods," at altitudes up to . Elsewhere, it grows in scrub and coniferous woodland between and . It was grown in English gardens before 1913, and was described by William Robinson in the twelfth edition of ''The English Flower Garden'' in 1933. It dropped from sight before being rediscovered in the late 1990s. ''Salvia ringens'' forms a basal clump of pinnately divided leaves, typically less than 1 foot in height and width. The leaves are dark green with a grayish cast, with petioles and stems that stand out with a wine color. From summer through autumn the plant produces tall (2 foot) flowering stems with two to four flowers at the top, in widely spaced whorls. There are only a few stems at any given time. The 1.5 inch violet-blue flowers are very showy and large, held in a small calyx covered with hair and glands. The specific epithet, ''ringens'', refers to the wide open two-lipped flowers.

Notes

ringens Flora of Greece {{Salvia-stub