Many Salvias are tuberous. Patens, some guaraniticas, forreri, and many South American species.

Many newly introduced ones have them as well, including S. lineata and S. stolonifera.

I used to think that none of these tubers had nodes or eyes on them, and that new growth depended on short pieces of healthy stem attached to the tubers, such as with guaranitica and patens, but the two I first mentioned have them. The image is of stolonifera tubers, with a single sprout coming out of the tuber at the center,

Thanks for this info! I just planted S. guaranitica and had no idea that it has a tuber.

Not all forms of guaranitica are tuberous, which begs the question as to whether those without may be hybrids???

The ploidy (multiplicity of genes) can also have an effect. Guaraniticas are a varying species, once considered three separate ones (S. ambigens and S. melanocalyx are the ones combined with S. guaranitica), and tetraploid, hexaploid, and octaploid forms are found over its distribution.

Polando Uria has introduced a number of new ones, and Robin has added others, mostly sports and hybrids from British gardens. BTW, the guaranitica purple form is very variable, based on the 4 to 5 different seedlings that Tony Avent has in his trial garden. I'm guessing it's a hybrid also.

The northern forms are supposed to be giants. Until new collections of these are made, it may be difficult to determine if the Costa Rican form is this or a hybrid.

Rolando....not Polando!!!

Sure that Costa Rican Blue is a hybrid...maybe with mexicana.

Few seedlings come true. I have had a seedling of what is supposedly the real guaranitica var. purpurea (which is NOT a hybrid) produce blue flowers.

Thank you for the info folks! I'll let you know if you've changed her mind! LOL!
I may be back....

salvia oxyphora produit aussi des tubercules qui conservent tr�s bien l'hiver dans une cave ou autre abri hors gel.

Quite!

Yes many Salvias have tubers, which in my opinion at least is also a good thing. I'm always hoping that some of these Guaranitica interg- hybrids will turn out to have the tuber factor. Many can be rather short lived otherwise. The ones with tubers tend to hang around the longest. As long as these get a reasonably dry cool season (or storage in cold climates) they come back year after year which basicaly means you don't (as easy as they strike) need to prepare cuttings year after year either which takes time and space. Think only one is invasive, it's not a Guaranitica or its hybrid, likes very wet ground I remember that.