50 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



SOME TEXAS HONEY PLANTS 



February 



Notes on the Sources of Nectar in the Southwest, W!.cre Every Bush 

 Thorns and Where Little Honey Comes From Cuhivated 

 Crops, Excepting Cotton 



Has 



COTTON is an important honey 

 plant in a large area of Texas, 

 but since we have already de- 

 voted a considerable space to the 

 consideration of the cotton plant as a 

 source of nectar (March, 1919 issue), it 

 will be passed over here. To the bee- 

 keeper from the North, where the 

 chief sources of surplus are from 

 cultivated crops, such as alfalfa, clo- 

 ver and buckwheat, things seem a 

 little topsy-turvy in Texas, where but 

 little dependence is placed on culti- 

 vated crops for honey. Even cotton 

 fails to yield to any marked extent 

 on the light soils south and west of 

 San Antonio. The writer greatly en- 

 joyed several weeks of travel among 

 the beekepers of the Southwest in 

 1918 and found it difficult to under- 

 stand how the beekeeper could make 

 sure of getting his colonies ready 

 for a honey flow that was very un- 

 certain as to its time of arrival. Many 

 of the desert plants bloom at irregu- 

 lar times, depending upon the rainfall, 

 rather than upon the season of the 

 year. In wet seasons they may bloom 

 two or three different times, and 

 short honey flows may be expected at 

 almost any time following a good 



By Frank C. Pellett 



rain. One beekeeper in Uvalde Coun- 

 ty stated that he seldom had a good 

 crop at all his different yards in the 

 same season, as local showers would 

 bring on a good flow at one yard 

 when no honey would be available at 

 a yard a few miles away. 

 Mesquite 



The mesquite is the largest and 

 most important tree on the uplands 

 over hundreds of square miles of 

 country. It ranges from Oklahoma 

 and Texas westward through New 

 Mexico and Arizona to California. 

 The trees have much the appearance 

 of neglected fruit trees, and one may 

 ride for many miles through what 

 would seem at first sight to be a big 

 peach orchard. The trees do not 

 grow close together tall and straight 

 like our forest trees, but scattered 

 about and branching like trees in an 

 orchard. 



To the natives of the old Southwest 

 mesquite was extremely important. 

 Cattle and sheep fed freely upon the 

 pods and leaves, while the Indians 

 often ate the pods themselves. The 

 seeds were often ground into a sort 

 of meal, while the trees and stumps 

 furnished fuel and the blossoms 



Mesquite is the most important honey plant of the arid Southwest. 



Acacia amentacea. 



served the bees as an important 

 source of nectar. 



Mesquite is very probably the most 

 important honey plant in all the 

 Southwest. The honey is of a light 

 amber color and good quality. Bee- 

 keepers living in Te.xas reported to 

 the writer that the honey is lighter 

 in some seasons than in others, and 

 that this is the case when no other 

 plant blooms at the same period, so 

 that the difference cannot be laid to 

 the mi.xture with honey from other 

 sources. They reported also that it 

 yields more regularly on light sandy 

 soils than on heavy land. The first 

 blooming period usually comes in 

 April, followed by a later one in July. 

 If there is plenty of moisture it 

 blooms profusely. Mesquite is the 

 source of immense quantities of 

 honey and except in cases of exces- 

 sive drought seldom fails to yield 

 something, although in portions of its 

 range it does not yield regularly. 

 Huajillo (\Va-h.;-ya) 



The beekeepers of the Southwest 

 boast of the quality of the huajillo 

 honey. Huajillo is one of the acacias 

 (Acacia Berlandiera), but apparently 



