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Yes, sage is generally rated fire resistant for home landscaping.
Across six institutional assessments, Salvia is recommended as fire-resistant, firewise, or low-flammability. The agreement reaches from British Columbia and the western United States to Louisiana and Mediterranean Spain.
The recommendations come from different kinds of guidance. The Generalitat Valenciana includes sage among low-flammability plants for beds and rockeries. Louisiana State University recommends the genus for firewise landscaping, while Montana State lists it among fire-resistant plants adapted to Montana. The University of Nevada also includes sage because at least two cited western sources rated it favorably.
There are two cautions behind that broad agreement. FireSmart BC approves sage as fire resistant but also flags it for further research. Utah State says Salvia species and hybrids can be firewise when properly used and maintained, and marks the row as potentially weedy or legally restricted. That marking does not alter Utah State’s firewise verdict, but it may affect which sage is suitable locally.
Sage is a perennial in the mint family. These findings support choosing it as a fire-resistant landscape plant, not treating it as fireproof. Proper placement and maintenance remain part of the recommendation, and local restrictions should be checked for the particular Salvia species or hybrid.
Form
perennial
Rated in
British Columbia; Louisiana; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes +9
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
British Columbia; Louisiana; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes; Montana / Northern Rockies; Nevada / Great Basin; New Mexico; Ohio / Midwest; Oregon; Oregon (Willamette Valley); Utah / Intermountain West; Valencia, Spain / western Mediterranean; Yavapai County, Arizona
Maintenance
Typed publication scope: 12 scopes across 10 cited fire sources
LSU AgCenter calls these 31 ornamentals commonly used in Louisiana and recommended for Louisiana firewise landscaping efforts. FireApproved publishes 31 exact source owners, mostly at the source's genus grain. Undocumented curation remains corroborative and is not site suitability.
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
The April 2022 MontGuide explicitly presents fire-resistant species adapted to Montana. FireApproved publishes 92 exact plant records from the source while retaining excluded genus, family, and unresolved rows; the guide itself says not every listed species grows in every part of the state.
New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01
OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension compiled plants suited to Nevada climate zones and reported favorably by at least two upstream firewise lists. FireApproved publishes 126 exact source owners at Nevada publication scope. The source explicitly makes no independent flammability determination, so these rows remain corroborative.
Utah State University Extension states that this fact sheet selects examples for Utah landscapes and that they require proper placement and maintenance. FireApproved publishes 83 exact source owners at Utah publication scope. The table is not a site-specific planting clearance.
Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in OH.
Native range
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.
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.
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Salvia or Sage profile (PDF page 83) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
Oregon State Fire Marshal: Salvia [osfm-fire-resistant-quiz] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico: PDF page 6, Flowers and Ground Covers, p6-r24 [nm-emnrd-firewise-table-row] (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.
Source says the plant can be firewise when properly used and maintained. The source marks this row as potentially weedy or legally restricted. Source table name: Salvia species & hybrids.
OSFM quiz result “Salvia” says: Salvias stay low to the ground and have high moisture content. Their growth habit can help reduce ladder fuels, making it harder for ground fire to climb into trees.
Listed as Salvia spp. (Sage). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Several native and cultivated varieties
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: csu-nmsu-firewise
“FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”
Listed as Salvia spp. (Sage) in Flowers and Ground Covers. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=Y, 5,000 ft=Y, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=Y, 8,000 ft=Y, 9,000+ ft=Y. Water need: L-M; sun/shade: S/PS; mature height: 1-3’; approximate bloom: Jun.
Listed as Sage — Salvia sp.; Russian sage — Perovskia sp.. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
