A biennial, up to 1.2 m (4 ft.) tall, it has a large basal clump of broadly ovate grey-green leaves, and in its second year a tall, branched, flower spike of silvery, lilac-blue and pink two-lipped florets. The whole plant has an unpleasantly overpowering scent, but it is showy and decorative in the border.<\/p>\n
The specific name, sclarea, comes from clarus, meaning clear, and is also the origin of the common name clary, a corruption of \u201cclear eye\u201d which refers to an old use, mentioned in many herbals, of clary sage as a lotion for inflammations of the eye. It has long been a flavoring for alcoholic drinks as it remains to this day and clary wine is said to have been a 16th-century aphrodisiac. In the 19th century it was sometimes used as a hops substitute, to make beer more heady and intoxicating. In conjunction with elderflowers, it provided German wine producers with a way of adding a muscatel flavor to Rhenish wine.<\/p>\n
Native to southern Europe found on dry, sandy soils.<\/p>\n
Grow in free-draining, but reasonably moist and fertile soil. Propagated by seed sown in spring or autumn. Often self-seeds.<\/p>\n
Leaves fresh or dried, essential oil.<\/p>\n
Infusions of the leaves are used as lotions for cuts and abrasions, and as a gargle for mouth ulcers. Sometimes recommended to be taken internally in small doses for promoting appetite.<\/p>\n
Essential oil is used to flavor vermouth and liqueurs, and widely used in commercial soaps, scents and eau-de-Cologne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A biennial, up to 1.2 m (4 ft.) tall, it has a large basal clump of broadly ovate grey-green leaves, and in its second year a tall, branched, flower spike of silvery, lilac-blue and pink two-lipped florets. The whole plant has an unpleasantly overpowering scent, but it is showy and decorative in the border. History […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,111,86,97,92,138,105,110,160,124,122,103,149,113,114,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acidic-soil","category-alkaline-soil","category-biennial","category-full","category-herb","category-herbaceous-perennial","category-loamy-soil","category-neutral-soil","category-perennial-plant-type","category-pink","category-purple","category-sandy-soil","category-shallow-rocky","category-spring","category-summer","category-white"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Salvia sclarea","common-names":"Clary Sage, Clear Eye, Europe Sage, Eyebright","family":"Labiatae or Lamiaceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":113,"name":"Spring","slug":"spring","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":113,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":96,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":124,"name":"Pink","slug":"pink","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":124,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":54,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":122,"name":"Purple","slug":"purple","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":122,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":60,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":118,"name":"White","slug":"white","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":118,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":113,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":86,"name":"Biennial","slug":"biennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":86,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":26,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":92,"name":"Herb","slug":"herb","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":92,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":79,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":138,"name":"Herbaceous Perennial","slug":"herbaceous-perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":138,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":56,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":111,"name":"Alkaline Soil","slug":"alkaline-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":111,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":117,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":149,"name":"Shallow Rocky","slug":"shallow-rocky","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":149,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":14,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 5 - 9","region_or_country_of_origin":"Mediterranean region of southern Europe to Central Asia","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 2 ft. 0 in. - 5 ft. 0 in.<\/span><\/p>\n Width<\/strong>: 2 ft. 0 in. - 3 ft. 0 in.<\/span><\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}