552 



IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



HONEY PLANTS. 



Should I give you a list of all the honey plants in Iowa, I would go 

 beyond the limits of a paper desirable at a meeting of this kind. 



I want to call your attention to a few of our most important plants. 

 Of the early blooming plants, the willows are the most important. There 

 are several species widely distributed in the state. The almond leaved 



Fig. 15. 



Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale). Bees gather honey from this plant. 

 It is however bitter. (U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 



willow, (Salix amygdaloides) , the Black willow (alix nigra), the pussy 

 willow (jSaZia; cordata). These species furnish an abundance of nectar 

 and pollen. The pussy willow is the earlier of the blooming willows. 

 The soft maple (Acer saccharinum) , now cultivated everywhere in the 

 state, is one of the best of the early blooming plants for nectar. The 

 hard maple (Acer nigrum) also furnishes an abundance of nectar, but 

 it blooms much later. The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is one of the 

 early and late nectar producing plants. I saw honey bees visiting it 

 on the 30th of October 1914. In May, or the latter part of April, the 

 apple, plum, and cherry furnish an abundance of honey. Then come 

 the raspberry and blackberry and with them the white clover followed 

 by the alsike clover, and soon the white sweet clover, which in Iowa is 



