Bee and Salvia

OK, already. I know it's another bee shot. But this time, I was interested in the pollination of the salvia by the bee. Gee, it was fascinating to watch.

The bee shoves it's head into the flower - no please or thank you - it just rams it in. The flower very slowly and very gently lowers the two stamens onto the back of the bee. The bee, by it's rummaging nature, ensures that it's back gets a good thick coating of pollen. And the salvia grabs it back again at the next flower.

The Pollinator

In a more scientific description, this is what Mr. Wiki says:

The defining characteristic of the genus Salvia is the unusual pollination mechanism, which consists of two stamens (instead of the typical four found in other members of the tribe Mentheae) and the way the two stamens are connected to form a lever. When a pollinator probes a male stage flower for nectar, the lever causes the stamens to move and the pollen to be deposited on the pollinator. When the pollinator withdraws from the flower, the lever returns the stamens to their original position.

In older, female stage flowers, the stigma is bent down in a general location that corresponds to where the pollen was deposited on the pollinator's body. The lever of most Salvia species is not specialized for a single pollinator, but is generic and selected to be easily released by many bird and bee pollinators of varying shapes and sizes.

P.S. The cold/sinus attack still has me firmly in it's grasp. I can't look at the screen for very long, so I'm really sorry about the lack of comments. I will get back to it very soon.

P.P.S We had a goodly amount of rain yesterday and last night - the garden still lives!!!

P.P.P.S. I'm going now. Goodnight.