Salvia castanea is a herbaceous 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...

 discovered in the Yunnan Valley in China in 1904 by plant collector George Forrest

George Forrest (botanist)

George Forrest was a Scottish botanist, who was one of the first explorers of China's then remote southwestern province of Yunnan, generally regarded as the most biodiverse province in the country....

. It also grows in Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

, and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

. The plants used in horticulture today likely came from seed collected from a plant at 14,000 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