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Yes, creeping sage is rated fire resistant, but a separate Forest Service assessment gives reason to treat that rating as qualified.
USDA Forest Service field work on southern California brushland clearings placed creeping or Sonoma sage in the “Good performance” section. That field result provides the strongest direct support for the favorable verdict, although the overall primary evidence remains limited.
The University of California Forest Products Laboratory listed creeping sage as recommended by 14 references for use in high-fire-risk areas. Its report also cautions that the earlier lists it compiled often used undefined terms and lacked a scientific basis. Separately, the Diablo Firesafe Council placed the plant among those with favorable fire-performance ratings in at least three references and cited 14 of its own 57 numbered references for creeping sage. Its guide says the ranking terms in those references were mostly undefined.
For low-growing landscape plants in southern California, another USDA Forest Service assessment weighed fuel volume and ease of fire spread alongside inherent plant flammability. Creeping sage received a “medium to high” fire-retardance rating. On that source’s scale, the result is mixed; only “high” and “generally high” support a recommendation. Creeping sage is a Southwestern U.S. native groundcover in the mint family, and the favorable field result and compiled recommendations support calling it fire resistant, with the medium-to-high rating preventing an unqualified claim.
Form
groundcover
Rated in
California; Southern California
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
The guide presents itself as fire performance ratings for common landscape plants in a fire-prone California setting. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as republished California context. It is not an independent rating, a current endorsement, or parcel suitability.
The UC Forest Products Laboratory says the guide covers properties of common California landscaping plants and was prepared for California fire agencies. FireApproved publishes 130 exact owners at historical California publication scope. The report is a 1997 compilation, not a current endorsement, site rating, or independent test of every row.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CA.
Native range
Current cited native range in CA.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Low-volume and slow-burning vegetation for planting on cl…: Table 3: Good performance [nord-green-brushland-clearing-performance] (with its recommendation)
Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interf…: Chapter 4, Landscape Vegetation Database [ucfpl-1997] (with its recommendation)
Fire Performance of Common Plants: Table 1 (favorable in 3 or more references) [diablo-guide-to-plants-three-reference-vote] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“RECOMMENDED by 14 references for use in high fire risk areas.”
1997 Landscape Vegetation Database row: Salvia sonomensis (Sonoma or creeping sage). Preserved UCFPL transcription marker: F14.
Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) — Diablo Firesafe Council · live page captured 2026-08-29 · original sourceCorroborationMirrorlineage: ucfpl-berkeley resolves to Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants
“Table 1: favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references (refs 7,9,10,11,15,16,21,25,27,38,40,41, 42,53)”
The Diablo Firesafe Council Guide to Plants lists Salvia sonomensis (Sonoma sage, Creeping sage) as shrub, perennial, in Table 1: plants with a favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references. The guide cites 14 of its 57 numbered references for this row (7,9,10,11,15,16,21,25,27,38,40,41, 42,53). The guide states the ranking terms in its underlying references were mostly undefined and makes no attempt to rank within the list, and that fire performance is compromised without maintenance.