WHITE SAGE. GREASEWOOD.
Audibertia polystachya, Benth. Mint Family.
Shrubby, three to ten feet high; many-stemmed. Leaves.—Opposite; lanceolate; narrowing into a petiole; several inches long. Flowers.—White or pale lavender, in loose panicles a foot or two long. Calyx.—Tubular; bilabiate. Corolla.—About six lines long, with short tube and bilabiate border. Upper lip small; erect. Lower lip three-lobed; the middle lobe large. Stamens.—Two; jointed. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style slender. Stigma two-cleft. Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.
The classic honey of Hymettus could not have been clearer or more wholesome than that distilled by the bees from the white sage of Southern California, which has become justly world-renowned. The plants cover extensive reaches of valley and hill-slopes, and are often called "greasewood."
Certain it is that the white stems have a very greasy, gummy feel and a rank, aggressive odor. In spring the long, coarse, sparsely leafy branches begin to rise from the woody base, often making the slopes silvery; and by May these have fully developed their loose, narrow panicles of pale flowers and yellowish buds.
The structure of these blossoms is very interesting. The long, prominent lower lip curves downward and upward and backward upon itself, like a swan's neck, while the two stamens rising from its surface lift themselves like two long horns, and the style curves downward.
A bee arriving at this flower naturally brushes against the stigma, leaving upon it some of the pollen gained from another flower. Then alighting upon the lower lip, his weight bends it downward, and he grasps the stamens as convenient handles, thus drawing the anthers toward his body, where the pollen is dusted upon his coat as he probes beneath the closed upper lip for the honey in the depths of the tube. The various sages of the south have a very interesting way of hybridizing.