Salvia fruticosa,[2] or Greek sage, is a perennial herb or sub-shrub[3] native to the eastern Mediterranean, including Southern Italy, the Canary Islands and North Africa.

The entire plant is covered with hairs, with numerous leaves of various sizes growing in clusters, giving it a silvery and bushy appearance.

The flowers are pinkish-lavender, about .5 in (1.3 cm) long, growing in whorls along the inflorescence, and held in a small oxblood-red five-pointed hairy calyx.

In its native environment it grows as part of the Maquis shrubland and several other open plant communities, but populations composed entirely of Salvia fruticosa are not uncommon.

[5][6] The variation in leaf depends on geographical area, with plants growing on the western part of Crete having entire leaves with flat blade and margins and dark green upper sides.

Plants growing on the eastern side of the island have much smaller leaves, with deeply three-lobed yellowish-green blade and undulate margins.