VOL LIX— NO. 5 



HAMILTON, ILL., MAY, 1919 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



SOME SOUTHERN HONEY PLANTS 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT 

 Photos by Florida Photographic Concern 



THE honey plants of the north 

 are widely distributed and the 

 same source is important over a 

 wide range of territory. In the south 

 many plants which are important are 

 restricted to a comparatively small 

 range of territory. The following 

 plants are all valuable in a few lo- 

 calities, but are not widely dis- 

 tributed : 



Black Mangrove 



The Black Mangrove, Avicennia 

 nitida, is also known as blackwood 

 or blacktree. It is an evergreen 

 tree, growing along the seashores of 

 the coast of Florida. It is said also 

 to occur to some extent along the 

 gulf coast to Texas and throughout 

 the coasts of Tropical America. It 

 varies from a bushy shrub to a tall 

 tree 60 or more feet in height in 

 tropical regions. The wood is coarse- 

 grained, hard and very durable in 

 contact with the soil. The tree is to 

 be found only in the vicinity of salt 

 water. 



The honey from mangrove is light 

 in color, mild in flavor and is gen- 

 erally regarded as of first quality. 

 According to E. G. Baldwin it was 

 the heaviest yielder of nectar known 

 in the south, prior to the big freeze 

 in 1895. In one year he reports Harry 

 Mitchell, of Hawk's Park, as having 

 secured an average of 380 pounds 

 per colony from mangrove alone. 

 Following the freeze it failed to yield 

 nectar in surplus quantity for about 

 fifteen years, and reports since that 

 time have not indicated that it is up 

 to its former importance. 



The blooming period opens about 

 the middle of June and usually in- 

 cludes the entire month of July. The 

 Bom usually lasts from six to eight 

 weeks. 



Pennyroyal 



Wild Pennyroyal, Satureja rigida, 

 is a square-stemmed plant of the 

 mint family that grows abundantly 

 on the sandy pine lands of the south 



half of Florida. It begins blooming 

 in December in the southern part of 

 its range, and blooms till early in 

 March. Weather conditions are too 

 uncertain during the winter months 

 to favor storing much surplus honey. 

 However, according to Poppleton 

 (Review, Jan., 1893), it is the source 

 of some surplus and from it the bees 

 are stimulated to begin heavy brooct- 

 rearing about Christmas. In an oc- 



Mangrove bloon 



casional season a fair amount of sur- 

 plus was secured, sometimes as much 

 as SO pounds per colony. The honey 

 is said to be light in color, good fla- 

 vor and heavy body— a first-class ar- 

 ticle. 



Blooming as it does in the winter 

 months, it is invaluable to the bee- 

 keeper whose bees have access to it. 

 If no surplus is secured it serves to 

 fill the hives with bees and honey at 

 an important season and to prepare 

 for the later crops to follow. 

 Gallberry 



The Gallberry, in some localities 

 better known as Inkberry, Ilex gla- 

 bra, is usually heard of as a honey 

 plant only in the south. However, it 

 occurs as far north as Nova Scotia 

 on the seashore and along the coast 

 from Massachusetts to Virginia and 

 Florida, and west to Louisiana. It is 

 a common shrub in the low pine bar- 

 rens of all the Gulf States. It is a 

 small evergreen shrub with smalz, 

 dark leaves. It is an important 

 ho.ney plant in southern Georgia, 

 where it is widely distributed over 

 the sandy lands, especially of the 

 coastal plains. It grows in dense 

 thickets and rapidly extends over 

 newly cleared lands. 



A Valuable Plant 



"As a honey plant perhaps it has 

 no equal in the southeast. We have 

 never failed to get a surplus from it, 

 even during the most unfavorable 

 weather conditions. It begins to 

 bloom the first of May and continues 

 for 24 to 28 days. During this time 

 bees disregard other bloom, working 

 it up to about 8 o'clock for pollen, 

 then the flow comes on for the re- 

 mainder of the day. * * * It is a 

 great bloomer, even the stems are 

 rolls of bloom. * * * We have 

 never taken off a large crop of this 

 honey, as 147 pounds of surplus is the 

 best crop we have ever had from one 

 colony. The honey is a light amber 

 color, has a heavy body, a very mild 



