Salvia castanea is a herbaceous perennial plant discovered in the Yunnan Valley in China in 1904 by plant collector George Forrest. It also grows in Nepal, Bhutan, and *****. The plants used in horticulture today likely came from seed collected from a plant at 14,000 ft in Nepal, at the base of Mt. Everest. It grows 3 ft tall in the wild, and 1-2 feet in cultivation in Europe and the U.S. The few 1-1.5 in flowers grow in whorls on an inflorescence about 1 ft long. The name castanea, which means 'chestnut colored', refers to the purplish-maroon flowers