Shi Jian Chuan

Salvia chinensis is a slender annual or short-lived perennial herb of the family Lamiaceae, native to fields, roadsides, and low hillsides across central, southern, and eastern China. It grows 20 to 60 cm tall with the characteristic square stems of its family, often branched from the base and softly pubescent. The leaves are opposite, simple or once-pinnate with one to three pairs of small lateral leaflets and a larger ovate terminal leaflet, with serrate margins. Small bluish-purple, two-lipped flowers are borne in lax, interrupted verticillasters forming elongated terminal racemes in late summer and autumn, followed by small nutlets. The entire flowering herb is collected, dried, and used; it is distinct from the rooted Dan Shen (S. miltiorrhiza) and the Western culinary sage S. officinalis.