Salvia pauciflora Kunth

Plants perennial. Roots sometimes dilated. Stems 2-4, slender, ascending or suberect, unbranched, with widely spaced leaves, densely villous or glabrescent. Petiole 2-2.5 × as long as blades, shorter to obsolete in upper leaves; leaf blade broadly ovate to ovate-triangular, 2.5-6(-7) × 1.2-5 cm, hispid or strigose, rusty, brown glandular, base cordate to hastate, margin crenate, apex acute or obtuse to rounded. Inflorescences spreading brown villous, glandular pilose; verticillasters 2-flowered, widely spaced, in racemes or panicles 2-8 cm; lower bracts leaflike, upper ones ovate, shorter than calyx, slightly strigose, ciliate. Pedicel ca. 2 mm. Calyx campanulate, 5-7 mm, glandular pilose; upper lip ± semicircular, entire, apex acute; lower lip slightly longer than adaxial, teeth ovate-triangular, apex subacute. Corolla purplish red or purple-white, rarely purplish, white spotted on lower lip, 1.3-2 cm or rarely more, sparsely pilose or subglabrous; tube fine pilose annulate inside, gradually dilated at apex, slightly curved upward, 1-1.4 cm, ca. 6 mm wide at throat; upper lip subcircular, ca. 5.5 × 5 mm, emarginate; middle lobe of lower lip flabellate, ca. 3 × 5.5 mm, undulate; lateral lobes ± semicircular, ca. 2.5 mm wide. Filaments ca. 4 mm; connectives ca. 4 mm, arcuate, arms subequal. Style slightly exserted. Nutlets unknown.

Yunnan.

* Forest margins, forests; 2800-3400 m.

Salvia pauciflora is a perennial plant that is native to Yunnan province in China, growing in and around forests at 2,800 to 3,400 m (9,200 to 11,200 ft) elevation. It grows on 2–4 slender unbranched stems with widely spaced leaves. The leaves are broadly ovate to ovate-triangular, typically ranging in size from 2.5 to 6 cm (0.98 to 2.36 in) long and 1.2 to 5 cm (0.47 to 1.97 in) wide.

Inflorescences are of racemes or panicles that are 2 to 8 cm (0.79 to 3.15 in), with a corolla that is purplish red or purple-white (rarely purplish), with white spotting on the lower lip. The corolla is 1.3 to 2 cm (0.51 to 0.79 in), rarely a bit longer. The specific epithet pauciflora is Latin for 'few-flowered'.