1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



301 



said of eastern Manitoba. He places 

 the yield at from SO to 80 pounds per 

 colony in localities where tlie best 

 species of goldenrod and asters 

 abound. The honey is usually of good 

 quality, ranging in color in the dif- 

 ferent districts from white to dark 

 amber; that gathered in swampy dis- 

 tricts usually being bright golden. 

 Evidently goldenrod honey is seldom 

 stored separate from aster in locali- 

 ties from which these reports are 

 made. 



Mr. Sladen describes three types of 

 locations in which the plants may be 

 found in Canada: 



1. Open swamp or 

 bog, where S. uligi- 

 nosa and S. rugosa 

 are found. The for- 

 mer begins bloom- 

 ing in August, while 

 the latter blooms 

 until mid-Septem- 

 ber, so that there is 

 more than a month 

 of flow from these 

 plants. Although 

 the bogs are inde- 

 pendent of rain 

 during the honey- 

 flow, fine weather 

 and moderate 

 warmth are neces- 

 sary to a crop. 



2. Sandy or grav- 

 elly barrens or 

 plains. On the 

 coast as well as in- 

 land on such lands 

 are found S. pube- 

 rula (Fig. 1), while 

 inland are to be 

 found, in addition, 

 S. squarrosa (Fig. 

 2) and the less im- 

 portant S. hispida 

 (Fig. 3). Good rains 

 in early August, fol- 

 lowed by fine and 



warm weather bring 

 best results. 



3. A restricted 

 area centering in 

 Cumberland County, 

 Nova Scotia, in 

 which S. graminifo- 

 lia (Fig. 5), is a 

 troublesome weed. 



He further re- 

 ports that the road- 

 side goldenrods of 

 old Ontario are not 

 heavy producers of honey under or- 

 dinary conditions. 



In an article on the "Honey Flora 

 of New England" which appeared in 

 the April, 1916, American Bee Jour- 

 nal, Lovell states as follows: 



a great quantity of heavy yellow 

 honey is stored annually." 



Mr. Lovell has kindly sent me his 

 field notes. There is a large amount 

 of interesting informali(jn which 

 space will not iiermit publishing. The 

 notes include the study of six spe- 

 cies, all of which produce some nec- 

 tar in Maine. He describes the tall, 

 hairy goldenrod (S. rugosa, Fig. 4), as 

 the latest to blossom and the most 

 valuable as a honey plant. It is found 

 in damp thickets and on moist land. 

 While in bloom the bees work it 

 very diligently and the honey is 

 stored rapidly. The apiary is filled 



FIG. 4.— TALL, HAIRY GOLDENROD tSOLIDAGO RUGOSA). 



(Photograph by Lovell.) 



with a sour odor which, in the eve- 

 ning, is noticeable at a distance. 



Goldenrod honey, according to him, 

 is deep golden yellow in color, thick 

 and heavy, with a more decided fia- 

 ,.,t T ,, , , , vor than white clover honey. When 



if I were compelled to stake the extracted it granulates in a month or 

 existence of bee culture m New Eng- t but the bees winter on it per- 



landon a smgle genus of plants I fectly. 



should select the goldenrods. There 

 are many species, and they all yield 

 nectar and pollen. They begin to 

 bloom in midsummer and continue to 

 bloom in October. They are very 

 common and there are species adapt- 

 ed to the seashore, the fields, the 

 rocks and the woods. I have never 



The Bushy Goldenrod 



Next in importance he places the 

 bushy goldenrod (S. graminifolia, 

 Fig. 5). This is common in fields, 

 open woodlands and hedgerows. The 

 odor is faint, but the nectar is clearly 

 visible in the flowers. He reports as 



known the flow of nectar to fail, and many as six honeybees at work at 



one time on a single flower cluster. It 

 will be noted that this is one of the 

 species which Doctor Pammcl men- 

 tfons as yielding nectar in Iowa. 

 Sladen also cites it as important in 

 Canada. 



Graenicher collected 135 different 

 species of insects on this species in 

 Wisconsin. 



The cream colored goldenrod, some- 

 times called white goldenrod, (S. bi- 

 color, Fig. 6), is of special interest be- 

 cause of the fact that it is the only 

 one of the group which is not yellow 

 in color. Although it produces nec- 

 tar, I find no record which indicates 

 that it is of much 

 importance as a 

 honey plant any- 

 where. Lovell says 

 that it is of little 

 value in Maine. 



The early golden- 

 rod (.S. juncea. Fig. 

 7), is the first to 

 bloom in Maine and 

 is very abundant in 

 old fields. The bees 

 visit it freely, but 

 apparently do not 

 get much honey 

 from it. 



(jraenicher states 

 that he has collect- 

 ed 182 different 

 species of insects 

 on this plant in 

 Wisconsin, which 

 indicates the pres- 

 ence of considera- 

 ble nectar in that 

 locality. 



General Reports 



In searching 

 through the bee- 

 keeping literature 

 for reports on 

 honey from golden- 

 rods I seldom find 

 the particular spe- 

 cies m e n t io n e d. 

 There are numerous 

 reports of honey 

 from goldenrod, but 

 this is as far as the 

 report usually goes. 

 "Two colonies of 

 bees taken to a 

 sandy plain forty 

 miles north of Ot- 

 tawa, August 25, 

 each gathered in 

 three weeks about 

 forty pounds of surplus honey from 

 S. puberula and S. squarrosa. It is 

 estimated that at least three-fourth 

 of the honey came from S. puberula, 

 which was much more abundant than 

 S. squarrosa. The honey is of a light 

 color and the flavor and aroma are 

 pleasant and distinctly suggestive of 

 goldenrod." (Sladen in 36th report, 

 Ontario B. K. A.) 



"You ought to see the bees work on 

 it. They store lots of honey from it. 

 Last year I had five or six nuclei 

 which did not have any stores at all 

 on the first of September, but when I 

 went to feed them for winter, I found 

 they had twenty pounds of nice 

 honey gathered from goldenrod. 



BEST FOR HONEY. 



