Meadow Clary

One of the rarest plants on the nature reserve is just starting to flower. This is now the only native site for Meadow Clary, Salvia pretensis, in the county. The flower is brilliantly designed to attract and achieve pollen exchange by bumble-bees. The bee lands on the broad lip of the flower, reaches inside for the nectar and in doing so presses a lever which lowers two anthers to deposit pollen on the bee's back. Flowers where the anthers are empty of pollen go on to develop a mature stigma and this lowers so it touches the back of the next bee that visits. Clever stuff, eh! As well as all this cleverness it is a really beautiful plant.