[3] The plant is regarded as a rather strong mosquito repellent commonly used in traditional medicine of Behbahan where it blooms around March.

S. tingitana reaches about 2 feet (0.61 m) in height and width, forming an upright mound with numerous square, leafy stems.

The many-branched inflorescences reach 1 foot (0.30 m) long, with several coming into bloom at the same time, giving a very dramatic effect.

[1] At various times in its long history Salvia tingitana has been associated with Egypt, Syria, Aleppo, Tunis, and Tangier, without any definitive source of its origin or native populations.

[4] In 1989 the first wild population of S. tingitana was discovered in western Saudi Arabia by English botanist Sheila Collenette.

S. divinorum grows in a very limited area of Mexico, where it has been cultivated for centuries by the Mazatec Indians for its psychotropic properties.

A study in 2008 by Foley, Hedge, and Möller compared old herbarium specimens and drawings in order to understand the plant's confusing history.

[7] In 1759 Arduino, prefect of the Padua Botanical Garden, described a 'new' plant with the polynomial name "Salvia caule fruticoso, foliis ovato-sinuatis, crenatis, rugosis, hirsutis".

[7] When Etlinger described and named S. tingitana in 1777 in his Commentatio Botanico-Medica de Salvia, he referred to both Tournefort's and Rivinus' earlier descriptions.

As recently as the 1980s and 1990s, some botanists (Rosúa (1988) & Alziar (1993)) argued that S. tingitana is just a cultivated form of S. sclarea and should be considered a synonym of it.