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Lamiaceae family

Wild Clary Salvia verbenaca

Also known as: verbena sage · vervain sage · wild sage

Wild Clary is an introduced perennial herb, found in the lower 48 states. It grows to 1.5 ft.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 8 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
1.5 ft
Lifespan
Perennial
Foliage
Broadleaf
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~6 caterpillar species

Salvia supports ~6 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Salvia in North America, including:

Abagrotis barnesi · owlet moth Anoncia conia · cosmet moth Anstenoptilia marmarodactyla · plume moth Autographa californica · Alfalfa Looper Moth Autographa corusca · owlet moth Bucculatrix taeniola · ribbed cocoon-maker moth
+ 8 more species →
Loxostege sticticalis · snout moth Megalographa biloba · owlet moth Papaipema nebris · Stalk Borer Peridroma saucia · Pearly Underwing Pherne subpunctata · geometer (inchworm) moth Pyrausta dapalis · snout moth Pyrausta onythesalis · snout moth Sphinx eremitoides · sphinx (hawk) moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host · 28 bee visitors

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Salvia is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →

28 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Wild Clary — the 12 most-recorded:

Apis mellifera · Honey Bee Eucera albofasciata · long-horned bee Anthophora rubricrus · digger bee Bombus pascuorum · Common Carder Bumblebee Lasioglossum malachurum · sweat bee Osmia andrenoides · mason bee
+ 6 more bees →
Eucera parnassia · long-horned bee Osmia aurulenta · mason bee Andrena hattorfiana · mining bee Andrena mocsaryi · mining bee Anthophora aestivalis · digger bee Anthophora atroalba · digger bee
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024. Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →
Wildlife & visitors 1 bird · 9 nectaring

Open records of who else uses Wild Clary — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 1 bird species (fruit, seed, browse):

Barnardius zonarius · Australian Ringneck

9 adult butterfly & moth species are recorded nectaring at its flowers — the most-recorded:

Pieris brassicae · Large White Zerynthia polyxena Pieris rapae · Small White Papilio machaon · Old World Swallowtail Gonepteryx cleopatra Lampides boeticus · Long-Tailed Blue
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
How we know this (2) Methods & honest limits
Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.
Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).
Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →
Sources for this entry (22) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[10] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[11] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[12] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[13] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[17] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)
[19] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI
[20] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[21] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[22] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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