Bilberry

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Bumblebees dominate for two reasons: they can buzz-pollinate the poricidal anthers, which honey bees cannot, and they fly at temperatures that ground honey bees. Bilberry fruit yields in northern forests correlate measurably with bumblebee abundance.

Narrow-mouthed pendulous bells that favour bees able to grip and hang. Short-tongued bees sometimes rob nectar through holes bitten at the base.

Worth knowing

Good nectar at a critical early moment for northern colonies and for emerging bumblebee queens, whose founding success tracks bilberry abundance closely in Fennoscandia.

Flowering

In flower

April to June (northern hemisphere)

Early and short, and vulnerable to late frost — a hard May frost can eliminate both the honey crop and the berry harvest at once.

When nectar flows

Moderate nectar, and available in cold dull weather when little else is offering. The narrow-mouthed bells release pollen best under buzz pollination.

Year-to-year variation

Reliable as forage almost every year and a honey crop only in the Nordic and Baltic forests where it dominates the ground layer over large areas.

What it does to the honey

Bilberry nectar produces a dark amber honey with a genuine tart berry note and a resinous forest depth — considerably more assertive than the North American blueberry honey it is related to.

Growing it

Conditions

Acid soil, cool moist conditions, sun to part shade. It will not grow on chalk or in a hot dry summer.

Size

20-60 cm, spreading into extensive mats.

Native range

Northern and central Europe, northern Asia and the mountains of southern Europe.

Suits

Small gardens, Large gardens, Containers and window boxes

• Difficult outside its natural conditions — it wants genuinely acid, cool, humus-rich ground and dislikes both drought and heat.
• Cultivated blueberry is a far easier garden proposition and does a similar job for bees.
• Fruit yields in the wild are a useful proxy for pollinator health, which is why Nordic berry harvests are monitored as an ecological indicator.

What it looks like

A low deciduous shrub with bright green angular twigs, small oval leaves and solitary or paired pink-tinged globular bells, followed by the familiar blue-black berries with purple flesh.