Phlomis samia Linnaeus
Sp. Pl. 585 (1753)
Illust.: Bot. Mag. t. 1891 (1818)
Andrew’s Botanist’s Repository Pl. 584 (1797-1812)

Synonym:P. samia var. graeca Bornmüller

Distribution in the wild:
Former Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, in Pinus and Cedrus forest, metamorphic soils, volcanic slopes, 400-1750 m.

Flowering in the wild:June-August

samia was applied by Tournefort for a collection from the island of Samos.

This has moderate-sized green heart shaped leaves and almost all parts of the plant [leaves (lower surface), stem and whorls] are sticky to the touch. The calyces of the Greek plants are often coloured purple especially in the upper parts. P. samia differs from P. bovei subsp. maroccana by not having its woody sub-structure and by the corolla not having the large gap between upper and lower lip or the very wide lower lip of P. bovei subsp. maroccana.

P. samia ‘Green Cap’ is a form from Turkey where the upper lip is green coloured.

P. samia ‘Green Glory’ This is a form from Turkey where both the upper and lower lips are of a lime green colour.

Glandular herb to 1½ m. Most parts glandular hairy and most parts sticky to the touch (except upper surface of leaves). Basal leaves green, lanceolate-ovate to broadly ovate, cordate or sagittate at base, crenate or serrate at margin, 8-27 × 5-15 cm; petiole to 30 cm. Floral leaves ovate or lanceolate, acuminate, 4-8.5 × 2.5-6.5 cm, shortly petiolate. Flower stems much branched like a candelabra, each with 3-7  whorls,  6-22 flowered. Whorls  6-7 cm across.  Bracteoles 20-26 mm long, 1 mm wide, often connected in a pair and a triplet which branch above their base like a tree. Calyx tubular 18-25 mm long and 5 mm wide. Calyx teeth subulate, 6-12 mm. Bracteoles, calyx and teeth covered in glandular stellate hairs. Bracteoles and calyces divergent. Corolla to 35 mm, upper lip of corolla green to purple, lower lip claret coloured to green. Lower lip outer lobe margins rolled downwards and inwards. Central lobe of lower lip to 16 mm wide. Nutlets hairless or topped with short glandular hairs . Hardy to -15°C.