Salvia japonicaThunb.

WFO wfo-0000301297 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Salvia japonica, photographed by WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁
fig. a WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-19 / obs. 144855528
Salvia japonica, photographed by mami_t_t
fig. b mami_t_t, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143056591
Salvia japonica, photographed by りなべる
fig. c りなべる, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 108271459
Salvia japonica, photographed by Yoshimasa Uchiyama
fig. d Yoshimasa Uchiyama, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 69141296
Salvia japonica, photographed by Yoshimasa Uchiyama
fig. e Yoshimasa Uchiyama, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57987078
Salvia japonica, photographed by Yoshimasa Uchiyama
fig. f Yoshimasa Uchiyama, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 69141318
Salvia japonica, photographed by Yoshimasa Uchiyama
fig. g Yoshimasa Uchiyama, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57987080
Salvia japonica, photographed by Yoshimasa Uchiyama
fig. h Yoshimasa Uchiyama, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57987081

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 5 botanical countries

Regions where Salvia japonica is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Taiwan China South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwan Korea
Native distribution of Salvia japonica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Taiwan TAI

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 27 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Polakiastrum longipes Nakai
  • Salvia chinensis f. alatopinnata Matsum. & Kudô
  • Salvia diversifolia Miq.
  • Salvia erythrophylla Hemsl.
  • Salvia formosana Hayata
  • Salvia formosana var. matsudae (Kudô) T.C.Huang & J.T.Wu
  • Salvia fortunii Benth.
  • Salvia fushimiana Koidz.
  • Salvia japonica f. alatopinnata (Matsum. & Kudô) Kudô
  • Salvia japonica f. albiflora Hiyama
  • Salvia japonica f. longipes (Nakai) Murata
  • Salvia japonica f. pinnata (Diels) Kudô
  • Salvia japonica subsp. taipingshanensis T.C.Huang & J.T.Wu
  • Salvia japonica var. bipinnata Franch. & Sav.
  • Salvia japonica var. crassifolia Konta & S.Matsumoto
  • Salvia japonica var. fortunei (Benth.) Kudô
  • Salvia japonica var. longipes (Nakai) Satake
  • Salvia japonica var. pinnata Diels
  • Salvia japonica var. ternata Franch.
  • Salvia longipes (Nakai) Satake
  • Salvia matsudae Kudô
  • Salvia nipponica var. formosana (Hayata) Kudô
  • Salvia polakioides Honda
  • Salvia polakioides f. viridiflora Honda

and 3 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.