THE HONEY FLORA OE MAINE 



By John H. LovBll, Waldoboro, Maine 



There are in Maine, including herbs, trees and shrubs, not 

 far from 1500 flowering plants. Only a small part oif these are 

 valuable to the bee-keeper. Many are rare, others yield little 

 or no nectar, and still others are adapted to bumblebees, butter- 

 flies and moths. The northern part of the State, especially in 

 Aroostook county, is much better adapted to bee-keeping than 

 along the coast; white and alsike clover are abundant north- 

 ward and apiaries of large size occur, but in the southern sec- 

 tion the hills are covered with glacial delbris, the ground is 

 often bare in winter, sudden extremes of temperature follow 

 each other quickly, with the result that the flora is poor and 

 meager and it is seldom that more than a dozen hives are found 

 together. Unfortunately it is not profitable to cultivate any 

 plant for honey alone. The easiest way to improve the honey 

 flora of a locality is to sow alsike clover, which secretes nectar 

 fully as freely as white clover. Three or four acres of clover 

 or buckwheat are required for each hive of bees. Our climate 

 is rather too cold for sweet clover. The plants important to 

 the bee-keeper may be divided into groups ; pollen plants, and 

 nectar or honey plants. 



PoLLSN Plants 



Many plants are devoid of nectar and furnish only pollen, 

 as the elms, hickories, roses and poppies. Not a few of these 

 have been listed as honey plants as the result of careless obser- 

 vation, or because honey-dew has been gathered from their 

 fioliage by bees. None of the plants in the following list ever 

 secrete floral nectar. 



Alder (Alnns incana). This is the earliest shrub to bloom 

 in this State. It is wind-pollinated. On a warm day honey- 

 bees resort to the flowers for pollen. 



