Which salvia?

I went to appraise an estate house today(where the owner died). The house has been empty a while. These were in the shady part of the yard, dry ground, but shaded most of the day. Some had been mowed over recently.
The house is out in the middle of farm fields, sugar cane and sorghum fields on all sides, except the 27 acres that went with this house are hayfields.
The seeds are teeny and the flowers are about half the size of S. coccinea. There were hundreds of these plants, but not many flowers because of the recent mowing.

Another shot.

One more of the plant. My friend's mom lives in the same general area and she has a wild salvia that grows in her shaded yard, it's very short, small flowers like this.

Suzie, it's a little hard to see from these pictures (because of the surrounding grass), do those leaves look like the leaves of Coral Nymph? I have a salvia that has sprung up on it's own in an area far from my other salvias. I thought it was a Coral Nymph that had really travelled, but the buds are now showing the same dark red color as these photos.

They are much smaller than coral nymph, but yes, they remind me of it.

Maybe Lady in Red? Mine has pointed tips on the leaves like this one!

melanie

No, definitely not Lady in Red. The flowers are smaller and more "skinny". These were only growing in full shade, none at all out in the sunny areas.

I think the one I told you about may be the same as this. Teeny, slender flower. Mine is growing in afternoon sun, about 4 hrs worth, but so far the plant and leaves seem about the same size as the Coral Nymph. I don't have a clue where it came from.

I pulled up a few starts, I'll take more pictures when they grow a bit. The flowers are small, the stem is very slender and the seeds are about the same size as the cedar sage seeds. I have Lady in Red, maybe I can remember to take a picture of the two of them together.

I am a silent member of another forum devoted to Salvia's only. These are passionate people.... anyway, I have learned that there are over 900 species of Salvias.... I don't dare ask them, "what are the names of red ones.... " I just read and observe.... unlike here... we ask anything!

just sharing...mel

I saw this book on Salvias the other day at a nursery. I really wanted to get it, but then I couldn't have bought the plants that were on sale. Does anybody know anything about this book? (Maybe I should check the Bookworm.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0881925608/qid=1124380745/sr=8-5/ref=pd_bbs_5/103-4587786-2332644?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Isn't the coral nymph more of a pink color instead of read?

Yes, coral nymph is pinkish.