Meadow clary or meadow sage

Meadow sage (Salvia pratensis)

The meadow sage is a wild growing sage species and belongs to the lipflower family and is a herbaceous semi-rosette plant.

It grows up to 60 cm tall and roots with a tap root up to 100 cm long. The square-edged stem also has pairs of opposing, wrinkly leaves. The flowers are arranged in false whorls, which are strongly two-lipped and mostly blue, but can also be pink or white in colour. In the lower part, they are tube-shaped. The free upper part is divided into a lower lip, which serves as a landing place for flower-visiting insects, and an upper lip, under which the stamens lie hidden.

Only bumble bees are able to penetrate the flower: Their head hits a lever that triggers a mechanism and hits the dust bag on the abdomen of the insect. The bumblebee may now make use of the nectar at the base of the flower with its long sucking trunk. In the next flower it will remove the pollen from its back at the pistil and fertilise it.

Occurrence meadow sage

The meadow sage prefers warm, dryThe dry matter refers to that portion of the cheese that remains after removal of the water contained. The more water is removed from the cheese, the lower its dry matter and vice versa. » More info locations with a moderate nutrient content above calcareous subsoil. For flowering it needs a lot of light, if the shade is too strong the rosettes remain sterile.

Effect meadow sage

The entire plant is rich in essential oils that have an anti-inflammatory effect. These ingredients also have a positive effect on the health of farm animals.