Species
+

Salvia splendens Sellow ex Nees

Scarlet Sage, Scarlet sage, Tropical sage, bonfire salvia, kkaekkot

Climate known 15 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 splendens, the scarlet sage, is a tender herbaceous perennial plant native to Brazil, growing at 2,000 to 3,000 m elevation where it is warm year-round and with high humidity. The wild form, rarely seen in cultivation, reaches 1.3 m (4.3 ft) tall. Smaller cultivars are very popular as bedding plants, seen in shopping malls and public gardens all over the world.

Text from Wikipedia, “Salvia splendens”, 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
Sellow ex Nees
Native to
Brazil Southeast
Wild records
224 in range· 101 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1571mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 269 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–36DLI
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, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1571 mm a year, wettest January at 269 mm, driest August at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.3 °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 Fenixanthes splendens (Sellow ex Nees) Raf.; Horminum splendens (Sellow ex Nees) M.Gómez; Jungia splendens (Sellow ex Nees) Soják; Salvia brasiliensis Spreng.; Salvia colorans Benth. and 4 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, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

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 (1171 mm of 1571 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.1 °C against a yearly mean of 20.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 1571 mm a year, wettest January at 269 mm, driest August at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1571 mm a year at the habitat, 1171 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 269 mm, driest August at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1383 mm to 2113 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 6.3 °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 6.3 °C, the absolute minimum -0.5 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 16.2 °C), warmest day 27.0 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.3 °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: 62 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 21 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 12 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1571 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 135 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.4 °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°frost34.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–36RH 62–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 135 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 °C27 / 25–2927 / 26–3026 / 25–2925 / 23–2723 / 21–2522 / 20–2421 / 20–2423 / 21–2524 / 22–2625 / 23–2725 / 24–2826 / 24–28
Night °C19 / 18–2319 / 18–2318 / 17–2217 / 16–2115 / 13–1913 / 11–1712 / 11–1613 / 12–1714 / 13–1816 / 15–1917 / 16–2118 / 17–22
Rain mm269 / 203–352196 / 132–254184 / 156–268102 / 73–14675 / 44–10752 / 21–8348 / 14–8038 / 23–6585 / 65–129130 / 107–167163 / 134–258229 / 191–343
DLI36 / 34–3836 / 35–3932 / 31–3428 / 27–3023 / 22–2522 / 20–2323 / 21–2427 / 25–3029 / 27–3333 / 30–3635 / 32–3835 / 32–37
RH %66 / 63–6966 / 62–6867 / 63–7066 / 62–6965 / 61–6763 / 60–6462 / 58–6462 / 57–6464 / 58–6766 / 60–6966 / 61–6966 / 63–70

Each figure is the median across the 135 grid cells holding the 218 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 2271:2665 (-23.575, -46.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.4 °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 135 distinct grid cells holding the 218 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2271:2665 (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 -23.50_-46.875, lapse-corrected -42 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 748 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.
NativeBrazil Southeast· introduced: Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, South European Russia, Ukraine, Gulf of Guinea Is., Comoros, Korea, Bangladesh, India, Jawa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Wisconsin, Florida, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cayman Is., Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest
Kew's description“subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.463, -46.632 · in the densest population, 189 records (84% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 224 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 101 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 544 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 224 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Salvia splendensSalvia splendensSalvia splendensSalvia splendensSalvia splendensSalvia splendensSalvia splendensSalvia splendens

Photographs: agujaceratops, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); prodewald, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Paula Romano, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Thomas Dreux, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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 splendens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Graphene-like porous carbon nanosheets derived from salvia splendens for high-rate performance supercapacitors
Bei Liu, Mei Yang, Hongbiao Chen, Yijiang Liu (2018) · Journal of Power Sources
Native or Exotic? Double or Single? Evaluating Plants for Pollinator-friendly Gardens
Sarah A. Corbet, Jennie N. Bee, Kanchon K. Dasmahapatra, Stephan W. Gale (2001) · Annals of Botany
Influence of silicon supplementation on the growth and tolerance to high temperature in Salvia splendens
Prabhakaran Soundararajan, Iyyakkannu Sivanesan, Sonali Jana, Byoung Ryong Jeong (2014) · Horticulture Environment and Biotechnology
From salmon pink to blue natural sensitizers for solar cells: Canna indica L., Salvia splendens, cowberry and Solanum nigrum L.
Peihui Luo, Haijun Niu, Gang Zheng, Xuduo Bai (2009) · Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
The Response of Plants to Illuminating Gas
Sarah L. Doubt (1917) · Botanical Gazette
Abscisic Acid Application Enhances Drought Stress Tolerance in Bedding Plants
Nicole L. Waterland, Craig Campbell, John J. Finer, Michelle L. Jones (2010) · HortScience

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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 19 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
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 138 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.