thought it might be interesting to post a few pix of some salvias which are always said to be similar to vaseyi and two others which grow in an adjacent or nearby habitats: two white sage specimens which are very different, a Rose Sage and an eremostachya. It is very interesting how these varieties evolved with such different anatomical responses to similar habitat. (im no scientist so my language is probably way off)
Anyway my fingers are crossed that the wand sage survives in my coastal climate.
Anybody heard of the possibility that vaseyi may be a stable hybrid of apiana and some other salvia (eremostachya perhaps)? (The pachyphylla plant's origin is far from Santa Rosa Mtn but it is the only one I have in a pot and the only one i've ever had with its geographical origin listed...apparently seed propagated by Theo Payne. The leaf form is much different from others I've nursery collected...more curved, not flat like all my others.)
Anyway my fingers are crossed that the wand sage survives my coastal climate with all the other desert varieties.

Here is a link that might be useful: S vaseyi contrasts

I think S. vaseyi's nearest evolutionary relative is probably S. apiana. An early exploring botanist, not seeing their flowers or dried-up heads, might even think they're variants of the same speces. However, at least in the area where I know them (Hwy 74 grade from Pinyon Flat to Palm Desert), they don't appear to hybridize, and I haven't seen them together. In this locality, S. apiana is higher up the slope. S. eremostachya is quite different from either. My gut feeling is that it's closer to S. mellifera. It's worth noting that although S. apiana and S. mellifera look different, and even the arrangement of the flowers is different (panicles vs. glomerules), they naturally hybridize quite frequently.

ccroulet, let it be mentioned too that the specimens i have of pinyon crest area apiana and eremostachya are becuase of your shared information. Thx! Do you know if mellifera grows in that region, say the santa rosa mountain area, pines to palms hwy zone? Would be interesting to see how close this species comes to the desert floor.

I haven't seen S. mellifera near the Pines-to-Palms Highway, and I don't recall seeing them anywhere along Hwy 74 east of Hemet. There are some along Hwy 371 near Aguanga, but that's the furthest east and highest I've seen them in interior Riverside Co. I think they are limited from growing higher and more easterly by the cold nights and lack of precipitation. I go to Anza frequently for astronomy activities, and this year I had nights in the upper 30s even in August. That's unusual, but it's the unusual events that limit plant and animal distributions.