Salvia pratensis Meadow Clary

Salvia Pratensis©Simon Williams/Plantlife

This handsome plant has striking blue flowers in a spike on the stem and pleasantly aromatic leaves when crushed.

It grows on chalk or limestone soils, usually in sunny, open grassland but also on south-facing hedge-banks and woodland margins.

Meadow Clary declined before 1950, mainly due to loss of grazing and the resulting smothering by coarser plants, and is still declining, now only found as a native population at 21 locations, mainly in Oxfordshire, the North and South Downs and the Chilterns.

Its presence in other areas is probably owing to its introduction through now-popular ‘wild flower seed’ mixes. It is still principally threatened by habitat change, often caused by the ploughing, fertilising and re-seeding of slopes for ‘improved’ grassland, as well as the continual loss of grazing.

It is classified as Near Threatened and is specially protected under a 1992 amendment to Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is an offence to pick, uproot or damage any plants listed on Schedule 8.