Vol. LVII.— No. 4 



HAMILTON, ILL, APRIL, 1917, 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YEAR 



Honey Plant Regions of North America 



—By John H. Lovell 



AT the request of Mr. Frank C. 

 Pellett, State Inspector of Api- 

 aries of Iowa, the writer has 

 contributed to his Annual Report an 

 article, in which he has proposed the 

 division of North America into 12 nec- 

 tar or honey-plant regions. As this 

 report is intended primarily for the bee- 

 keepers of Iowa, it is believed that the 

 publication of a brief description of the 

 proposed regions in a bee journal with 

 a wider circulation is desirable. The 

 regions are based on topography, cli- 

 mate, native vegetation and the geo- 

 graphical distribution of honey plants. 

 The study of honey plants can be car- 

 ried on to much better advantage 

 by the recognitions of these areas than 

 by States. The point of view in the 

 latter case is often too narrow, and fails 

 to offer an explanation of the occur- 

 rence of a species, when if the region 

 is considered its distribution becomes 

 perfectly clear. Merely as a matter of 

 convenience for reference it is much 

 easier to refer to a few natural divis- 

 ions than to a great number of arti- 

 ficial State areas. 



The 12 regions, as shown by the ac- 

 companying maps, ar^ as follows : 



1. Arctic Region. 



2. Coniferous Forest Region. 



3. St. Lawrence Basin Region. 



4. Appalachian or Deciduous-leaved 

 Forest Region. 



5. Prairie Region or White Clover 

 Belt. 



6. Southern Region or Cotton Belt. 



7. Florida Region. 



8. Great Plains Region. 



9. Arid or Cactus Region. 



10. Rocky Mountain Highlands of 

 Alfalfa Region. 



11. California Region. 



12. Tropical Region. 



The maps are essentially the same 

 as those given in the Report, except 

 that in two or three cases the boundary 

 lines have been changed slightly as the 

 result of more definite information, 

 e. g., the southern end of the line divid- 

 ing the Prairie Region from the Great 

 Plains Region has been carried further 



westward at the suggestion of Mr. 

 Pellett. 



1. ARCTIC REGION. 



The Arctic Region extends south- 

 ward as far as the parallel of 60 de- 

 grees, passing south of the extreme 

 southern point of Greenland, Cape 

 Farewell. It is a treeless land, carpeted 

 with mosses and lichens, with a perm- 

 anently frozen subsoil; and is of no 

 value to beekeepers. In localities there 

 are dwarf alders, birches and willows, 

 a few heath-like shrubs, such as blue- 

 berries and Labrador tea, while her- 

 baceous plants are represented by a 

 few hardy grasses, saxifrages, Com- 

 positae, pinks, crucifers and the con- 

 spicuous Iceland poppy. For much of 

 the year these barren tundras are swept 

 unchecked by icy winds. 



2. CONIFEROUS FOREST REGION. 



From Labrador westward to the 

 shores of the Pacific there extends a 

 vast uniform coniferous forest, com- 

 posed chiefly of white and black spruce, 

 fir, juniper and pine, with which are 

 associated alders, birches and poplars, 

 while willows grow thickly on the 

 banks of streams. In the southern 

 portion small apiaries are maintained 

 by the experiment stations in Manitoba, 

 Saskatchewan, Alb !rta and British 

 Columbia, but the region as a whole 

 offers little of promise to bee- culture. 

 The principal sources of honey are 

 willows, maples, dandelion, white and 

 alsike clover, fireweed, alfalfa and gold- 

 enrod. 



3. ST. LAWRENCE BASIN REGION. 



This region includes New Brunswick, 

 New England, New York, Michigan, 

 northern Wisconsin and southern On- 

 tario and Quebec, or the territory lying 

 around the Great Lakes and the St. 

 Lawrence river. The conditions in the 

 eastern section are much less favorable 

 to beekeeping than in the western. 

 The early honey flow is largely depend- 

 ent on the clovers, while in the fall 

 goldenrod is probably more valuable 

 here than elsewhere in the country. 

 Sumac and tobacco are of local impor- 



tance in Connecticut. In New York 

 there are extensive areas of buckwheat 

 and fruit bloom. In southern Michi- 

 gan, clover and basswood are the main 

 sources of honey, in the northern part 

 of the State fireweed and raspberry. 

 Basswood was formerly much more 

 valuable than at present. 



4. APPALACHIAN OR DECIDUOUS-LEAVED 

 FOREST REGION. 



The eastern United States enjoys a 

 uniform and abundant rainfall, which 

 in the highlands of the Appalachian 

 Region supports a magnificent decidu- 

 ous-leaved forest unequalled elsewhere 

 in North America. In the number of 

 species and the size of the trees it is 

 surpassed only by the forests of the 

 tropics. Within an area of a square 

 mile 75 species have been counted. As 

 would be expected the principal honey 

 plants are trees, as three species of 

 basswood, sourwood, tulip tree, sumac, 

 locust, Judas tree, Magnolia, maples, 

 persimmon honey locust, holly, horse- 

 chestnut, willows, besides a great va- 

 riety of wild and domesticated fruit 

 trees, shrubs and berry plants. The 

 three most important honey plants are 

 sourwood, tulip tree and clover. Sour- 

 wood, which extends from Pennsylva- 

 nia to Georgia, is by many assigned 

 the first position, being widely distrib- 

 uted and yielding nectar most freely. 

 Many beautiful shrubs abound, as Aza- 

 leas, Rhododendrons and Kalmias. 



5. THE PRAIRIE REGION OR WHITE CLOVER 

 BELT. 



The Prairie Region includes eastern 

 Dakota, Minnesota, southern Wiscon- 

 sin, Iowa, Illinois. Indiana, western 

 Ohio, Missouri (not strictly a prairie 

 State) and northern Kentucky. This 

 is a treeless area, except along the 

 water courses and where it merges into 

 the Appalachian Region. The surface 

 is partly level and partly rolling, and 

 was formerly the bottom of a great 

 inland sea. The soil is rich and deep, 

 fine and compact, and supports a lux- 

 uriant growth of grasses. The soil and 

 climate and the absence of extensive 

 forests are most favorable to the growth 



