Mediterranean sage
A biennial sage with woolly grey leaves; in its second year it forms candelabra-like branches of white flowers from May to July that give bees good nectar.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,5-1 m
- Life cycle
- Biennial
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Mediterranean sage grows on dry steppe, overgrazed pastures, roadsides and stony ground from southern and eastern Europe to Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran. In its first year it forms a flat rosette of densely white-woolly leaves; in the second year it sends up a flowering stem branched like a candelabra. Its flowers with white or cream lips are a good nectar source for honey bees.
Flowering
It flowers from late May to July. It is very drought-tolerant and keeps secreting in the hot early summer. After setting seed the plant dries out, breaks off and tumbles in the wind, scattering its seeds.
Honey and pollen
It has no separate commercial honey and contributes to steppe blossom honeys. Its pollen value is moderate.
Note for the beekeeper
Because livestock hardly eat it, it multiplies on overgrazed pastures; in such areas it can be an important source for bees. In the western United States it is one of the species controlled as a noxious weed.