This may be a resurrection of an old post, but as I was doing some permaculture homework, I came across it.
I recently visited the Permaculture Institute's demonstration site in Santa Fe, and encountered clary sage there. Just based on the information that our tour guide gave us, and a cursory internet search, here are the differences as I see them.
First, clary sage is a biennial herb and not perennial. Rather than forming a small woody shrub (officianalis), it produces a low lying rosette its first year, and then shoots a flowering stalk the second year. Depending on the variety, the flowering stalk may produce white (Vatican variety) or blue-purplish (turkestanica variety) flowers. Both the leaves and flowers are useful in teas, and the oil from the flower is a popular essential oil for aromatherapy.
