Salvia koyamae is a perennial rarely found in the wild and native to the Japanese island of Honshu

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, where it has a close affinity to two other salvia species: Salvia glabrescens and Salvia nipponica

Salvia nipponica

Salvia nipponica is a perennial plant that is native to Taiwan. Stems grow from , with triangular-ovate to triangular-hastate leaves that are typically by . The flowers have many hairs, with a yellow corolla that has a red spot....

. It was named by Tomitaro Makino

Tomitaro Makino

thumb|200px|Tomitaro Makino was a pioneer Japanese botanist noted for his taxonomic work. He has been called "Father of Japanese Botany", as he was one of the first Japanese botanists to work extensively on classifying Japanese plants using the system developed by Linnaeus...

, considered the "father of Japanese botany".

Salvia koyamae has a lax habit with decumbent stems reaching 2 feet or more that appear to creep, creating a loose ground cover about 1 foot tall. The large yellow-green cordate leaves are covered with fine hairs, and are 6 in long and 5 in wide with a 5 in long petiole. Pale yellow flowers grow in whorls, spaced on an inflorescence that can reach up to 1 ft long. Few flowers are in bloom at one time, but the heart-shaped leaves and yellow flowers make for an attractive plant. Around 1990 it was grown at the University of California Botanical Garden

University of California Botanical Garden

The University of California Botanical Garden is a 34 acre botanical garden located on the University of California, Berkeley campus. The Garden is in the campus's Strawberry Canyon which overlooks the San Francisco Bay...

and introduced into horticulture soon after that.