If you've ever visited the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Aboretum, you've probably noticed the honey bees enjoying the cenizo(Leucophyllum frutescens), an evergreen shrub with silvery foliage and bell-shaped pinkish-lavender flowers.
It attracts honey bees and other beneficial insects like kids to a carnival.
It's sometimes called Texas sage, but it isn't a sage. It's in the plantago family and is native to the southwestern United States and Mexico.
Rain drops on the blossoms, bees in the blossoms, and all's right with the world.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here we go with three thousand!
Attached Images:
![A pollen-packed honey bee dips her head in cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A pollen-packed honey bee dips her head in cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/841.jpg)
A pollen-packed honey bee dips her head in cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
![Let's go sideways. A honey bee relishes the cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Let's go sideways. A honey bee relishes the cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/842.jpg)
Let's go sideways. A honey bee relishes the cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
![Whoopsie, daisy! Er, whoopsie, cenizo! It's bottoms up for this honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Whoopsie, daisy! Er, whoopsie, cenizo! It's bottoms up for this honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/843.jpg)
Whoopsie, daisy! Er, whoopsie, cenizo! It's bottoms up for this honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)