74 



AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



the white honey by being mixed in the supers. Narcissus, parsley and 

 prairie clover are prairie plants which attract the bees freely. Wild onion 

 yields some honey. Dandelion and fruit bloom are important for spring 

 brood rearing and canteloupes j'ield some surplus in the Rock Ford region. 



Fig. 44. A white clover field in Iowa. 



Sunflowers, mentzelia, lupines and loco weeds add something to the sum 

 total brought to the hives. The white clematis is very common along the 

 streams, as are willows. Wild currant is common in the mountain can- 

 yons. Gaura coccinea, the red gaura or ragged lady, is much sought by 

 the bees for both honey and pollen. Oreocarya is a desert plant which 

 yields surplus, but which is rapidly disappearing through cultivation of 

 the land on which it grows. 



COLUMBO, see Monument Plant. 



COMA (Bumelia lycioides). 



Coma is the Mexican name for southern buckthorn (Bumelia lycio- 

 ides), which is found from Florida north to Virginia and west to Texas. 

 I' is also known as ironwood. It is a spiny shrub with flowers in dense 

 clusters. In South Texas it is also known as coma and is frequently re- 

 ported as an important source of honey. It blooms there from October 

 to February and produces nectar freely. At Rio Hondo, in the lower Rio 

 Grande Valley, beekeepers reported to the author that a flow of six weeks 

 from coma, from September to November, was common, and that swarms 

 issuing as late as December had gathered sufficient honey from this source 

 to carry them through. The honey is said to be light amber in color and 



