Mechanical isolation in sage

Black sage is pollinated mainly by honeybees and other small insects.

The flowers of black sage are too delicate to support larger insects. Big insects access the nectar of small sage flowers only by piercing from the outside, as this carpenter bee is doing. When they do so, they avoid touching the flower’s reproductive parts.


The reproductive parts (anthers and stigma) of white sage flowers are too far away from the petals to be brushed by honeybees, so honeybees cannot pollinate this species. White sage is pollinated mainly by larger bees and hawkmoths, which brush the flower’s stigma and anthers as they pry apart the petals to access nectar.