[medit-plants] Re: I should know this plant!

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I think Cara is correct - Salvia discolor.

We used to grow it years ago.  I planted it behind a white flowered Rosemary (now Salvia rosmarinus) because S. discolor is such a lax and untidy grower.  I enjoyed the 'black & white' theme.

But, I planted it too close to the stairs we used several times a day and the flower stems reached out to find sun across them.  I thought maybe it would be nice to see the black flowers close up, but I forgot that the floral stem was quite sticky!!  You can sorta-kinda see this in Louisa's photo - the sticky part is bright green, whereas the normal stems are whitish.  Curiously, it changes from the non-sticky to the sticky immediately at an internode!!  Always wondered about this.  On our plant, lots of gnats and small flies would get caught in the stickiness!  Odd evolution! (so much for 'divine design', eh?)