Black sage

Value to bees

Nectar

Very high

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years

Which bees, and why

Worked intensively by honey bees, and by a very large native bee fauna — California holds around 1,600 native bee species and the sage scrub community is one of the richest parts of that.

Worth knowing

An outstanding nectar source in a good year, and the backbone of the chaparral forage sequence.

Flowering

In flower

April to June (northern hemisphere)

Bloom timing and duration depend heavily on the preceding winter's rainfall.

When nectar flows

Heavy in years following good winter rain and effectively absent in drought years. The Californian sage flow is one of the most rain-dependent major honey crops anywhere.

Year-to-year variation

Sage honey has become scarce and expensive as Californian drought years have accumulated. A good year still produces a substantial crop; several consecutive dry years produce none, and the crop's reputation now rests partly on its unreliability.

What it does to the honey

Water-white to very pale, exceptionally mild, with a clean sweetness and a faint herbal note. Like acacia it is high in fructose and resists crystallising, which is part of its commercial value.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun, sharp drainage and summer drought. It will not tolerate summer irrigation and rots readily in wet ground.

Size

1-2 m tall and as wide, dense and woody at the base.

Native range

Coastal and inland California and northern Baja California, in chaparral and coastal sage scrub.

Suits

Large gardens, Small gardens

• Plant in autumn in Mediterranean climates so roots establish over winter.
• Do not water in summer once established — this kills more California natives than anything else.
• Cut back lightly after flowering; it resents hard pruning into old wood.

What it looks like

A rounded aromatic shrub with narrow dark green wrinkled leaves and pale blue to white flowers arranged in distinct spaced whorls up the flowering stem, giving a tiered appearance.