# salvia/sage



## bernsad (Aug 15, 2011)

You might find that the throats of the flowers are too long for the bees to reach but perhaps the salvias produce some nectar between the sepal and the petal.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I don't have personal knowledge of whether _sage _fits this category, but some flowers are the wrong size for certain bees to enter the flower and collect nectar in a normal fashion.

In some cases, bumblebees puncture a lower part of the flower so they can access the nectar, and then honeybees use that same puncture to also collect nectar. Here is a reference:

http://books.google.com/books?id=TD0uAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=bumblebees+puncture+flowers+honeybees&source=bl&ots=TLrBNHIymb&sig=EJwld7vTMHa2t5X5uv7mx_R42zg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VNqMUsPRGZLwkQfc64GYAw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=bumblebees%20puncture%20flowers%20honeybees&f=false

You may be seeing honeybees using punctures in the base of the flowers originally made by a different species.


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## bernsad (Aug 15, 2011)

That's interesting, thanks for the reference.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Wallroad said:


> We have at least three colors of salvia in our garden: purple, pink, and red. Bees love them, but I'm curious as to why they all go to the base of the flower to forage, outside of the petals.


The large genus is Salvia is famous in botanical research for highly evolved pollination specificity. Many Salvia have a "lever mechanism" that blocks entrance to the nectar reward unless the bee or hummingbird species is the correct weight and has the correct tongue or bill length. Naturally Hummingbird pollinated Salvia are often selected for the garden because they are more "showy" than the bee pollinated group. 

Your bees are likely taking advantage of robbing holes chewed in the base of the flowers. Honeybees don't do the chewing in most cases (the yellowjackets, etc are more energetic), but don't pass up the opportunity to steal a reward.

This is illustrated by a diagram of honeybee pollination on the European field sage Salvia pratensis -- note how tongue length, mechanical block to the head, and very precisely placed pollen are combined in the Salvia pollination system. The lower flower lip and lever system are carefully counterweighted to trip when the correct pollinator arrives. 



Karen and Verne Grant, celebrated California botanists from the 1960's, published a paper exploring why two shrubby species of sage could coexist in California, when they freely hybridize. The discovered that the pollinators are blocked by a tripping mechanism that changes the flower tube shape after the visit. Note that California *native bees range in size over several orders of magnitude*, and only one species of bee pollinates each species of Salvia.



A paper on the very specific native solitary bee -- and their co-ordinate Mint family pollination systems for multiple species of plants in the eastern mediteranean was published:
Pollination Ecology of Labiatae in a Phryganic (East Mediterranean) Ecosystem
Theodora Petanidou and Despina Vokou
American Journal of Botany
Vol. 80, No. 8 (Aug., 1993), pp. 892-899

Other Cites:
Mechanical Isolation of Salvia apiana and Salvia mellifera (Labiatae)
Karen A. Grant and Verne Grant
Evolution
Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun., 1964), pp. 196-212

New Insights into the Functional Morphology of the Lever Mechanism of
Salvia pratensis (Lamiaceae)
MARTIN REITH1,*, GISELA BAUMANN1 , REGINE CLAßEN-BOCKHOFF2
Annals of Botany 100: 393–400, 2007
doi:10.1093/aob/mcm031


There are >600 species of Salvia in the New World. A 55 page catalog of their pollination systems (and 230 reference cites) describe bird (several genera), bee (many species), butterfly, long-tongued fly and more.

POLLINATION SYNDROMES OF NEW WORLD SALVIA SPECIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BIRD POLLINATION
Petra Wester and Regine Claβen-Bockhoff
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Vol. 98, No. 1 (April 2011), pp. 101-155
Published by: Missouri Botanical Garden Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41238116


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