October, 1919 



G L E A N I N (J S IN BEE CULTURE 



639 



BLACKBERRY as a HONEY PLANT 



Yields Considerable Nectar in Geor- 

 gia, California, and Other Sections 



By John H. Lovell 



THE genus 

 Riihiis of the 

 rose family 

 contains the 

 raspberries and 

 b 1 a ckberries. 

 There are many 

 species widely 

 distributed in 

 the North Tem- 

 perate Zone. In the raspberries the fruit 

 falls away easily from the drjdsh cone-like 

 receptacle; in the blackberries the fruit does 

 not separate from the juicy receptacle, but 

 both come away from the calyx together. 



The value of the blackberry (Ruhus al- 

 leriheiiiensis) as a honey plant varies widely 

 in different parts of North America. In 

 New England the wild species are seldom 

 sufficiently common to be of much impor- 

 tance to bee culture; nor do the cultivated 

 varieties yield nectar freely. As visitors 

 the solitary bees far outnumbeu" the honey- 

 bees, which manifest a preference for col- 

 lecting pollen rather than the scanty supply 

 of nectar. In New York, New 

 Jersey, and Pennsylvania little 

 mention is made by beekeepers 

 of the blackberry. In Tennessee, 

 Buchanan says that the black- 

 berries yield little or no necti^r, 

 and while plentiful seem to be 

 almost entirely neglected by hon- 

 eybees. 



In Michigan, after the hard- 

 wood forest of beech and maple 

 has been cut for lumber, thure 

 speedily springs up a luxuriant 

 growth of brambles, many acres 

 being covered with raspberries 

 and blackberries; but while the 

 former is an excellent honey 

 plant, the latter offers little at- 

 traction to the beekeeper and is 

 not even mentioned in the list of 

 honey plants of this State pub- 

 lished in Gleanings by Ira D. 

 Bartlett, August 1, 1914. In 

 northern Michigan chief reliance 

 is placed on the raspberry, tlic 

 clovers, the milkweed, and the 

 willow-herb. Again, E. D. Towii- 

 send in describing the honey 

 plants of Michigan in Gleanings 

 for Oct. 1, 1908, says that after 

 the willow-herb blackberry brush 

 grows up, and later white clover 

 comes in; but the blackberry 

 never produces honey, for the 

 bees rarely notice it. 



If the blackberry fails the bee- 

 keeper in Michigan, it might 

 readily be concluded that it is of 

 no value anywhere. Here the con- 

 ditions under which it gi'ows ap- 

 pear to be almost ideal, and, if 

 it is a failure in this State, its 

 omission from the list of honey 

 plants would seem to be warrant- 

 ed; but strangely enough in other 



sections it 

 stands in t li e 

 front ranks of 

 the honey flora. 

 In northern 

 Georgia, at Bo- 

 gart, according 

 to Frank C. Pel- 

 lett, the princi- 

 pal crop comes 

 from the wild blackberries, which are abun- 

 dant in the woods. The blackberry flow is 

 at its best about the middle of April, and 

 the average yield is about 25 pounds per 

 colony. 



In California the blackberry is or even 

 greater value. In a letter to the writer M. 

 C. Eichter writes that it is of immense 

 value. California botanists now call the 

 blackberry the dewberry (see Bailey's Cy- 

 clopedia of Horticulture), and in my revised 

 list of "Honey Plants of California" I 

 mention Riihus liailrj/avus or American dew- 

 berry, and Ruhiis ritifoliiis, or California 

 dewlaerry. Both of these plants produce sur- 



California blackberry usually called dewberry. 



