Entomophily

Definition

Insect-pollinated plants produce comparatively small quantities of heavier, stickier, often sculptured pollen designed to adhere to an animal, and they advertise with colour, scent and a nectar reward. The whole honey catalogue sits downstream of this arrangement: nectar is the payment a plant offers a pollinator, and honey is what a colony does with the surplus.

Where the word gets used loosely

Not every conspicuous flower is a useful forage plant. Double-flowered ornamental cultivars often trade accessible nectaries and anthers for extra petals and offer little or nothing, and flower shape gates which insects can feed at all — a deep corolla excludes short-tongued bees regardless of how much nectar is inside.

Honey records that discuss this

• Almond blossom honeyDistinctly bitter with a marzipan aroma over it — one of the few honeys where bitterness arrives before sweetness, and an acquired taste even among people who like bitter honeys.
• Macadamia honeyMalty and nutty with a roasted depth and a butterscotch base — one of the few honeys that genuinely tastes like the crop it came from.
• Lychee honeyDelicately floral with a distinct rose-and-lychee perfume, and a clean sweetness underneath that keeps it from being heavy.
• Coriander honeyWarm and spicy with an unmistakable coriander-seed aroma over a caramel base — one of the most immediately recognisable honeys there is.
• Sesame honeyMild and clean with a distinct toasted-nut note and a light caramel base — the nutty character is genuine rather than suggested by the name.
• Shea honeyWarm and buttery with a nutty depth and a light caramel base — a rounded, approachable honey with a distinct richness.
• Argan honeyWarm and nutty with a distinct roasted note and a light resinous edge — genuinely reminiscent of the oil, which is a rare coincidence between a honey and its tree's other product.
• Cashew honeyTangy and resinous with a warm caramel base and a faintly astringent finish — assertive and quite unlike the mild nut it comes from.
• Madagascar litchi honeyOvertly aromatic — muscat grape and rose over a light caramel body. One of the more perfumed honeys in the catalogue.
• Carrot seed honeyDark, savoury and faintly medicinal, with a green umbellifer note and a slightly bitter finish. A challenging honey and an interesting one.

Plant records that discuss this

• BuckwheatGenuinely useful as a late-summer gap filler, and its speed from sowing to flower makes it one of the few forage plants that can be deployed tactically within a single season.
• AlmondTop-rated for both, at the single most valuable moment of the year for a colony coming out of winter. That is precisely why the pollination market exists.