Salvia chamelaeagnea, commonly in Afrikaans the bloublomsalie (blue flower salvia), is a much-branched shrub reaching heights to 2 m. The stems are slightly square in cross-section. The plants resprout after fire.
The opposite leaves are paddle-shaped and sometimes toothed along the margins. The hairless blades are leathery and gland-dotted.
The flowers are usually blue, mauve or pink, but may occasionally be white as in the photo, borne at the tips of leafless branchlets. Two-lipped flowers, up to 2,8 cm in length, grow in whorls. The upper lip is longer, the stamens protruding from below the hood of this upper lip.
Flowering commences late spring and continues until autumn.
The hairy calyx enlarges at the end of the flowering phase to hold the fruit.
The plant occurs in the far southwest of the Northern Cape but mainly in the Western Cape, from the Bokkeveld Mountains and Clanwilliam to the Overberg, the Little Karoo and Knysna.
The habitat is flats and sandstone slopes. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).