Moderate
A useful contribution without being a flow. Most garden perennials sit here, and a border of them supports a steady trickle rather than a crop.
38 records · nectar value
- Winter honeysuckleLonicera fragrantissimaModerate ratings that punch far above their weight because of when they arrive. Nothing else that is easy to grow flowers so reliably in December and January.
- CalendulaCalendula officinalisModerate nectar and good pollen, delivered across an exceptionally long season including the shoulders of the year when little else is open. Its value is timing rather than volume.
- CrocusCrocusVery high pollen at a point in the year when pollen is the binding constraint on a colony starting to raise brood. Bees return from crocus carrying enormous bright orange loads, which is one of the most cheerful sights in a February apiary.
- YarrowAchillea millefoliumModerate nectar and good pollen, and its real distinction is who can reach it — yarrow serves the very small and short-tongued insects that deep-flowered garden plants shut out entirely.
- RowanSorbus aucupariaGood pollen and moderate nectar, delivered in a completely accessible form. Its wider wildlife value — berries for thrushes and winter migrants — is at least as significant.
- HelleboreHelleborusModerate nectar and good pollen at the point in the year when both are hardest to find. Rated by timing rather than by quantity.
- Winter aconiteEranthis hyemalisGood pollen and useful nectar in the first weeks of the year. Nothing about the quantity is impressive and the date is what counts.
- PrimrosePrimula vulgarisModerate on both counts, and it matters because of when it arrives rather than how much it offers.
- Forget-me-notMyosotis sylvaticaModerate on both counts, and valuable because the flowers are small and shallow enough for the smallest solitary bees that larger plants exclude.
- CowslipPrimula verisModerate ratings from a plant whose real value is as an indicator — cowslips mark grassland that has not been fertilised or reseeded, and such grassland supports a great deal else.
- Christmas boxSarcococca confusaModerate ratings that count for a great deal because they arrive in January, in dry shade, where the alternatives are nothing.
- Winter viburnumViburnum × bodnantenseModerate nectar and little pollen, delivered across the longest winter flowering window of any common garden shrub.
- Oxeye daisyLeucanthemum vulgareModerate nectar and good pollen, and its distinction is who can reach it — the very small and short-tongued insects that need shallow open flowers.
- Wild carrotDaucus carotaModerate nectar and good pollen, in the most accessible form available — its value is the breadth of the visitor list rather than the volume.
- Japanese anemoneAnemone × hybridaGood pollen and moderate nectar in autumn, from a plant that will grow in part shade where most late forage will not.
- Witch hazelHamamelis × intermediaModerate on both counts and valuable entirely because of when it arrives. In its native range it is pollinated partly by winter-active moths.
- CranberryVaccinium macrocarponA moderate nectar and pollen source, and one that honey bees are notably reluctant to work when anything else is available.
- HarebellCampanula rotundifoliaA moderate nectar source and a critical pollen source — critical not in volume but in that specific bees can use nothing else.
- Red bartsiaOdontites vernusModest in volume and decisive in kind. A single specialist bee depends on it absolutely.
- Yellow rattleRhinanthus minorA moderate direct forage plant and an outsized indirect one, because it is what allows a grass sward to become a flower meadow.
- CatsearHypochaeris radicataA generous and long-running pollen source through the summer months, and moderate for nectar.
- White bryonyBryonia dioicaA long-running pollen source, and the entire basis of one specialist bee's existence.
- ColtsfootTussilago farfaraA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source, at a moment in the year when both are close to unavailable.
- PlumPrunus domesticaA useful early nectar source and a generous pollen source when colonies most need pollen for brood rearing.
- MopaneColophospermum mopaneModest floral nectar and a substantial honeydew resource, which is the reason the woodland supports beekeeping at all.
- TamariskTamarixA useful summer nectar source on saline and desert ground where little else flowers, plus a honeydew component.
- OsierSalix viminalisA modest nectar source and an outstanding pollen source at the point in the year when pollen matters most — colonies need it for brood, not for stores.
- SpindleEuonymus europaeusA modest nectar source and a highly accessible one, which makes it disproportionately useful to small bees.
- BuckthornRhamnus catharticaA modest but highly accessible nectar source over several weeks.
- Winter-flowering cherryPrunus x subhirtellaModest in volume and disproportionately valuable in timing — this is a plant whose worth is entirely about when it flowers.
- Winter clematisClematis cirrhosaModest in volume and valuable specifically for its timing.
- Hardy cyclamenCyclamen coumModest in volume and valuable in timing, covering the two thinnest points in the garden year.
- Lesser celandineFicaria vernaA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source at exactly the point in the year when colonies need pollen for brood.
- Shrubby cinquefoilDasiphora fruticosaA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source across an unusually long season.
- Coconut palmCocos nuciferaThe most reliable background forage across much of the coastal tropics, precisely because it never stops. Coastal apiaries frequently rest on it between the seasonal flows.
- SoybeanGlycine maxEnormous in area and unreliable in yield. Where it does flow it is a genuine surplus crop; where it does not, an apiary surrounded by soybeans can starve.
- SafflowerCarthamus tinctoriusA modest but well-timed flow that fills a real gap in irrigated arid farming country.
- MandacaruCereus jamacaruA minor nectar source and a substantial early-morning pollen one, valuable in a landscape where the dry season leaves very little.
Other nectar value groups
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