Species
+

Salvia mexicana L.

Lamiaceae

Climate known 73 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Salvia mexicana is a herbaceous shrubby perennial native to a wide area of central Mexico, growing at elevations from 2,600 to 8,500 feet. It grows in tropical areas in the south and arid subtropical habitats in the north, often at the edges of forests.

Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia mexicana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Salvia

Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the sage family Lamiaceae, with just under 1,000 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. Within the Lamiaceae, Salvia is part of the tribe Mentheae within the subfamily Nepetoideae. One of several genera commonly referred to as sage, it includes two widely used herbs, Salvia officinalis and Salvia rosmarinus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +3
Wild records
1628 in range· 698 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
May, mean day; nights 11 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1043mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 235 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–47DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Salvia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1043 mm a year, wettest July at 235 mm, driest March at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hemistegia mexicana (L.) Raf.; Jungia altissima Moench; Salvia amethystina Salisb.; Salvia lupulina Fernald; Salvia melissifolia Desf. and 8 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Salvia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (815 mm of 1043 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.1 °C against a yearly mean of 15.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1043 mm a year, wettest July at 235 mm, driest March at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1043 mm a year at the habitat, 815 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 235 mm, driest March at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 613 mm to 1625 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.8 °C, the absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.1 °C to 10.2 °C), warmest day 25.0 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jan to 25 °C in May; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 12 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1043 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 685 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–47RH 48–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 685 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 16–2321 / 18–2523 / 20–2725 / 22–2925 / 22–2923 / 20–2721 / 18–2521 / 19–2521 / 18–2421 / 18–2420 / 17–2420 / 17–23
Night °C6 / 3–107 / 4–118 / 5–1210 / 7–1411 / 8–1612 / 10–1612 / 9–1612 / 9–1612 / 9–1610 / 8–158 / 5–127 / 4–11
Rain mm21 / 12–4015 / 10–239 / 5–1919 / 5–4054 / 23–96179 / 97–281235 / 117–338214 / 100–329187 / 104–31381 / 46–14919 / 11–4010 / 6–27
DLI32 / 27–3438 / 33–4044 / 39–4647 / 43–4845 / 41–4838 / 34–4136 / 31–4036 / 31–3932 / 29–3532 / 29–3532 / 28–3430 / 26–33
RH %52 / 48–5951 / 46–5748 / 43–5648 / 43–5753 / 47–6163 / 58–6766 / 61–7066 / 61–7067 / 62–7162 / 58–6757 / 51–6254 / 49–60

Each figure is the median across the 685 grid cells holding the 1607 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1406:1590 (19.675, -100.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 685 distinct grid cells holding the 1607 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1406:1590 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-100.625, lapse-corrected +295 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2110 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.668, -99.322 · in the densest population, 978 records (60% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1628 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 698 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 65 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1628 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Salvia mexicanaSalvia mexicanaSalvia mexicanaSalvia mexicanaSalvia mexicanaSalvia mexicanaSalvia mexicanaSalvia mexicana

Photographs: (c) Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Jordi Martínez Martínez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Ricardo Betancourt Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Salvia mexicana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phytochemical Composition and Bioactive Effects of Salvia africana, Salvia officinalis ‘Icterina’ and Salvia mexicana Aqueous Extracts
Andrea F. Afonso, Olívia R. Pereira, Ângela Fernandes, Ricardo C. Calhelha (2019) · Molecules
Effect of the presence of nectar feeders on the breeding success of Salvia mexicana and Salvia fulgens in a suburban park near México City
Marı́a del Coro Arizmendi, Monterrubio-Solís Constanza, Juárez Lourdes, Flores-Moreno Ivonne (2007) · Biological Conservation
What do monarchs feed on in winter? Nectar sources at hibernation sites
Nancy Sánchez-Tlacuahuac, José Luis Pimentel Equíhua, Vicente Espinosa-Hernández, Heike Vibrans (2022) · Journal of Insect Conservation
Vegetation patches improve the establishment of Salvia mexicana seedlings by modifying microclimatic conditions
P Mendoza-Hernández, Alejandra Rosete‐Rodríguez, María Esther Sánchez‐Coronado, S. Orozco (2013) · International Journal of Biometeorology
Isolation and Chemical Transformations of Some Anti-inflammatory Triterpenes from Salvia mexicana L. var. minor Benth.
Rosalba Argumedo Delira, Hortensia Parra‐Delgado, Ma. Teresa Ramírez Apan, Antonio Nieto‐Camacho (2003) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
A New Languidulane Diterpenoid from Salvia mexicana var. mexicana
Bernardo A. Frontana‐Uribe, Martha V. Escárcega‐Bobadilla, Rosa Estrada‐Reyes, José Antonio Morales‐Serna (2011) · Molecules
A cis-Languidulane Diterpenoid from Salvia mexicana var. major (Labiatae)
Baldomero Esquivel, Baldomero Esquivel, Noemi Ramírez-Dávalos, Georgina Espinosa‐Pérez (1999) · Heterocycles
Abejas silvestres visitantes florales de Salvia assurgens (Lamiaceae): aportes a la ecología de la polinización de una salvia mexicana endémica de flores blancas
Carlos Cultid‐Medina, Paola Andrea González-Vanegas, Brenda Y. Bedolla-García (2021) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Salvia 27 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.