Low
Little pollen. Fine alongside better pollen sources and inadequate on its own.
10 records · pollen value
- SourwoodOxydendrum arboreumA serious nectar source with very little pollen to offer, which is a useful illustration of why the two are rated separately: sourwood feeds foragers superbly and contributes almost nothing to brood rearing.
- BuddleiaBuddleja davidiiThe separate ratings do real work here. Buddleia offers substantial nectar and very little accessible pollen, so it feeds adult insects and contributes almost nothing to raising the next generation of bees. A garden of nothing but buddleia would starve its own pollinators.
- HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenumHigh nectar, and largely unavailable to bees. The ratings and the accessibility note have to be read together here or the plant looks far better than it is for the insects most people are planting for.
- Winter viburnumViburnum × bodnantenseModerate nectar and little pollen, delivered across the longest winter flowering window of any common garden shrub.
- Silver firAbies albaNo floral nectar and negligible pollen. Its entire forage value is honeydew, which is why nectar and pollen are rated separately in this catalogue — a single bee-friendliness score would make this tree look worthless.
- Norway sprucePicea abiesNo floral nectar. Honeydew is the whole of its value, and it can be very substantial.
- English oakQuercus roburNo floral nectar and little useful pollen — the catkins are wind-pollinated and their pollen is collected only incidentally. The honeydew is the entire beekeeping interest, and stating that plainly is more useful than calling the tree bee-friendly.
- Southern beechFuscosporaNo floral nectar and negligible pollen. The honeydew is the whole of its value, and it is enormous — which is exactly why nectar and pollen are rated separately in this catalogue.
- 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.
- Common milkweedAsclepias syriacaA heavy nectar source and a poor pollen one, because the pollen is not loose — it is bound into paired pollinia that attach mechanically to a visitor.
Other pollen value groups
Tools that use these records
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