Posts Tagged: sage
The Sage That Wasn't A Sage Is Now A Sage
One of the top-performing plants in the Haven's bee attractiveness studies is Russian sage. Garden books describe this plant along the lines of "...even though it's called Russian sage, it's not a sage. That name is for plants in the genus Salvia...." To quote from the Sunset Western Garden Book,...
Honey, Let's Go Taste Honey!
Honey, let's go taste honey! Yes, you can do just that at Briggs Hall during the UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 13. It's free and family friendly. And one of the crowd favorites, meadowfoam, will be offered. Honey enthusiasts say it tastes like "cotton candy" and reminds them of a county...
Graduate student Yao Cai (right) serves honey at the 2018 Picnic Day activities in Briggs Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Want to see honey bees near the honey tasting? Check out the Biological Orchard and Gardens (BOG), located by the Mann Lab, in back of Parking Lot 26. Here a honey bee is nectaring on five-spot flowers, Nemophila maculata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This Bully Bee Goes for the Blue Plate Special
It's a bully. But what a bully! Ever seen the male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) protecting its turf? It's "no-holds barred" on our blue spike sage (Salvia uliginosa) and frankly, it's a delight to see and photograph. The highly territorial male body-slams all floral visitors,...
European wool carder bee, Anthidium manicatum, heads toward a blue spike sage, Salvia uliginosa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The European wool carder bee, an Old World bee, seems to prefer blue flowers with a long throat. This is blue spike sage, Salvia uliginosa, a native of Brazil. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Two European wool carder bees in the process of giving the world more wool carder bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
They Hop and They Suck!
You've seen them. You've seen them hop. They're aptly named. Leafhoppers are tiny insects (family Cicadellidae) that suck nutrients from plants. But have you ever looked at them really closely? We spotted scores of mottled leafhoppers last week on our Salvia mellifera (black sage) and...
Two leafhoppers sharing a black sage leaf in Vacaville, Calif. They are Typhlocybinae leafhoppers, Eupteryx decemnotata, according to Robert Lord Zimlich of BugGuide.Net. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
"Leafhoppers generally are varying shades of green, yellow, or brown, and often mottled," according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. This one is a Eupteryx decemnotata on black sage (Salvia mellifera) in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale: Think Pollinators!
Think bees. Think butterflies. Think plants that will attract them. The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is hosting its first in a series of fall plant sales on Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, UC Davis campus. Members (you can join online or at the gate)...
A black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus, forages on Purple Ginny salvia (sage). Sages are popular at the UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sales.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, sips nectars from a butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A pollen-packing honey bee heads for rock purslane, Calandrinia grandiflora. This is one of the plants available at the UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale on Oct. 7. The plant yields red pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)