Salvia apiana

Throughout the Californian distribution of White Sage, land modification for human use, frequent fire, invasive species and air pollution threaten the species’ habitat (Krol et al. 2021, Riordan et al. 2018, Bell et al. 2016). These threats interact to increase the overall severity of threat. For example, increasing fire frequency in southern California is shifting species dominance to nonnative annual grasses that compete for resources with native vegetation (Riordan et al. 2018). For species like White Sage that produce abundant seeds, short return fire intervals enable their establishment in new areas of chaparral, but urbanization and other factors encourage conversion to exotic grassland (Riordan and Rundel 2014). At least 50% of the remaining Coastal Sage Scrub habitat in southern California is degraded (Bell et al. 2016). The remaining White Sage population is at high risk of rapid decline or extinction because the habitats where it occurs are at risk (Krol et al. 2021).

There is concern that White Sage's dispersal ability into new suitable habitat in the lower elevation habitats in southern California is increasingly limited by decline in populations of the larger bodied Bombus and Xylocopa bees that effectively transfer pollen among its uniquely shaped flowers and encourage outcrossing (Montalvo et al. 2017). These larger bees are in decline due to habitat loss, disease and reduced floral resources. In southern California these large-bodied bees are more prone to extinction than other species (Schochet et al. 2016, Murray et al. 2009). Bees in the genera Bombus and Xylocopa have shown declines due to habitat fragmentation from agriculture and urbanization, and therefore their pollination services are reduced. The Bombus in southern California are especially sensitive to development (Montalvo et al. 2017). Displacement of carpenter bees by introduced European honey bees may have negative consequences for recruitment, though large numbers of honey bees may successfully pollinate White Sage flowers, compensating for some native bee losses (Ott et al. 2016).

Poaching of White Sage for commercial sale of smudge sticks is an ongoing driver of population decline and extirpation throughout southern California and Baja California, Mexico. Poachers collect White Sage in the spring when it is blooming because it is easily visible, removing entire plants (R. Ramirez, pers. comm., 2025). These practices not only prevent White Sage from recovering at the subpopulation and population levels but also remove a major food source for its specially adapted pollinators.