Salvia aerea is a perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 that is native to Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

, Guizhou

Guizhou

' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...

, and Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

 provinces in China, typically growing on hillsides, grasslands, forests, and thickets at 2500 to 3300 m (8,202.1 to 10,826.8 ft) elevation. It grows 6 to 40 cm (2.4 to 15.7 in) tall, with mostly basal leaves that are typically 2.5 to 8.5 cm (0.984251968503937 to 3.3 in) long and 2.5 to 4.5 cm (0.984251968503937 to 1.8 in) wide, though they can reach up to 20 cm (7.9 in) by 8 cm (3.1 in).

The inflorescences are raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long, with a 2.6 to 3.5 cm (1 to 1.4 in) corolla that comes in a wide variety of colors: orange, purple, white, and dark blue. The plant is used medicinally.