Tree
The heavy lifters. Most of the world's honey crops are trees, because a tree flowers in enough quantity in one place to fill a super rather than merely feed a colony.
92 records · plant type
- AppleMalus domesticaValuable spring forage, but rarely a surplus crop: the window is short and the colony is still building at that point in the year, so most of what comes in is eaten immediately.
- CherryPrunus aviumImportant early forage arriving when colonies are expanding and bumblebee queens are founding nests. Almost all of it is consumed rather than stored.
- HawthornCrataegus monogynaThe backbone of the temperate hedgerow and one of the great mass-flowering events of the European year. A hawthorn hedge in full bloom in May carries an extraordinary density of insects — bees, hoverflies, beetles and flies together — and the plant supports several hundred invertebrate species beyond the ones visiting the flowers. Its nectar flow is heavy, brief and famously unreliable from year to year.
- Sweet chestnutCastanea sativaAn exceptional pollen source — the catkins shed enormous quantities — and a good nectar source in the right weather. The pollen arrives at a useful moment for colonies building towards late summer.
- LimeTilia cordataExtraordinary nectar productivity concentrated into a very short window. Its urban prevalence makes it disproportionately important to city beekeeping.
- EucalyptusEucalyptusProlific in both nectar and pollen when flowering, though the pollen of some species is nutritionally poor for honey bees, and colonies confined to a single eucalypt species can suffer over time despite abundant forage.
- Strawberry treeArbutus unedoValuable out of all proportion to its abundance, because of when it flowers. Late nectar lets colonies enter winter with fresh stores in a landscape that has otherwise shut down.
- SidrZiziphus spina-christiIn much of its range sidr is not merely a good forage plant but effectively the only one at that time of year, which makes it structurally critical rather than simply valuable.
- Ogeechee tupeloNyssa ogecheExceptional nectar in a short window, in a habitat with little competing bloom at that moment. Its value is concentration in time and space rather than volume across a season.
- 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.
- Goat willowSalix capreaThe single most important early-season pollen source across much of Europe. Its value is not in yielding honey but in what it makes possible six weeks later.
- Crab appleMalus sylvestrisExcellent spring pollen and good nectar. Its particular value is the length of the flowering window relative to a cultivated apple.
- 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.
- Horse chestnutAesculus hippocastanumTop-rated for both, in enormous quantity, from a single tree. One mature horse chestnut is worth a considerable area of border planting.
- SycamoreAcer pseudoplatanusVery high nectar and good pollen, delivered at tree scale in mid-spring, plus a honeydew contribution later. A single mature sycamore is a serious forage asset.
- CarobCeratonia siliquaStructurally important rather than abundant — a good nectar source at a time of year when a Mediterranean colony has almost no alternatives.
- AlmondPrunus dulcisTop-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.
- LemonCitrus limonExcellent nectar over an unusually long and repeated window, and only a moderate pollen contribution.
- JujubeZiziphus jujubaA very high nectar source in arid and semi-arid country where the alternatives are few, which makes it structurally important as well as productive.
- QuillayQuillaja saponariaA good summer nectar source in dry country, and one of relatively few substantial ones in central Chile.
- HollyIlex aquifoliumGood nectar in the late spring, and an evergreen structure that provides shelter and nesting cover the rest of the year.
- Field mapleAcer campestreVery high nectar from a tree most people do not realise is flowering, plus a honeydew contribution later in the season.
- Black locustRobinia pseudoacaciaAn exceptional nectar source for a very short period. Pollen is useful but secondary — this is a nectar tree above all.
- Tulip treeLiriodendron tulipiferaA heavy nectar source and a moderate pollen source, concentrated in a narrow late-spring window.
- MesquiteProsopisA principal desert forage plant, providing both nectar and pollen in landscapes with very few alternatives.
- Sweet orangeCitrus sinensisA heavy nectar source over a substantial period, and moderate for pollen.
- AvocadoPersea americanaA heavy nectar and pollen source, and one the bees are notably unenthusiastic about relative to what else is on offer.
- MacadamiaMacadamia integrifoliaA good nectar and pollen source over a defined spring window.
- KanukaKunzea ericoidesAn excellent nectar and pollen source across the New Zealand summer.
- RewarewaKnightia excelsaA heavy nectar source in native forest, and an important one for the New Zealand forest bird community as well as for bees.
- PohutukawaMetrosideros excelsaA heavy summer nectar and pollen source on coasts with few alternatives.
- JarrahEucalyptus marginataA major nectar and pollen source in years when it flowers heavily.
- LeatherwoodEucryphia lucidaThe principal summer nectar source of the Tasmanian rainforest, and the basis of most of the island's honey production.
- 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.
- Scots pinePinus sylvestrisNo floral nectar, moderate wind-borne pollen that bees will collect, and honeydew in very large quantities where the scale insect is established.
- 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.
- Cabbage palmSabal palmettoA good summer nectar and pollen source, and a useful bridge across the southeastern dearth.
- Bee bee treeTetradium danielliiOutstanding on both counts, and precisely timed to the late-summer forage gap.
- Japanese pagoda treeStyphnolobium japonicumA good late nectar source and moderate pollen, at a genuinely useful point in the season.
- PearPyrus communisPoor for nectar and good for pollen, which is exactly the sort of split a single bee-friendliness rating would erase.
- PlumPrunus domesticaA useful early nectar source and a generous pollen source when colonies most need pollen for brood rearing.
- Black mangroveAvicennia germinansA good summer nectar source in a coastal landscape with few alternatives.
- Chinese tallowTriadica sebiferaAn excellent nectar and pollen source, and the mainstay of Gulf coast beekeeping.
- LogwoodHaematoxylum campechianumAn excellent dry-season nectar source across the Caribbean.
- American persimmonDiospyros virginianaA good nectar source where the trees are numerous.
- 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.
- LoquatEriobotrya japonicaAn outstanding winter nectar and pollen source in subtropical climates, and correspondingly valuable.
- KaranjPongamia pinnataA good nectar and pollen source at the thinnest point of the Indian year.
- ChiuriDiploknema butyraceaA valuable winter nectar source in the Himalayan mid-hills, where alternatives are scarce.
- SheaVitellaria paradoxaA good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the West African savannah.
- BaobabAdansonia digitataA good nectar and pollen source for the brief period the flowers are open.
- ArganArgania spinosaA good spring nectar source in a semi-arid landscape with few alternatives.
- MopaneColophospermum mopaneModest floral nectar and a substantial honeydew resource, which is the reason the woodland supports beekeeping at all.
- CashewAnacardium occidentaleA good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the tropics.
- MahuaMadhuca longifoliaAn excellent spring nectar source at the hottest and driest point of the central Indian year.
- NeemAzadirachta indicaA good dry-season nectar source across the Indian subcontinent.
- MangoMangifera indicaA good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the tropics.
- Bird cherryPrunus padusA generous spring nectar and pollen source, and worked heavily for the fortnight it lasts.
- QuinceCydonia oblongaA good late-spring nectar and pollen source with large accessible flowers.
- MedlarMespilus germanicaA good late-spring nectar and pollen source with exceptionally accessible flowers.
- ApricotPrunus armeniacaA good early nectar and pollen source, and valuable disproportionately for its timing.
- PeachPrunus persicaA good early nectar and pollen source across the orchard regions.
- Norway mapleAcer platanoidesAn excellent early nectar and pollen source, and one of the more significant urban resources in European towns.
- WhitebeamSorbus ariaA good spring nectar source with completely accessible flowers.
- Winter-flowering cherryPrunus x subhirtellaModest in volume and disproportionately valuable in timing — this is a plant whose worth is entirely about when it flowers.
- Tree of heavenAilanthus altissimaA heavy urban and post-industrial nectar source, and an uncomfortable one: the same qualities that make it valuable to bees make it a landscape problem.
- Holm oakQuercus ilexA pollen source in spring and, in the right years, a substantial honeydew source from midsummer onwards. The two have nothing to do with each other.
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaA dependable year-round trickle rather than a flow, which in a dryland landscape is worth more than its volume suggests.
- BabulVachellia niloticaOne of the major honey crops of northwestern India and Pakistan, and a substantial source across the Sahel.
- Talh acaciaVachellia seyalA major dry-season source across the Sahel and Arabia, and the backbone of migratory beekeeping in Sudan.
- DurianDurio zibethinusA short, intense and unreliable flow, worked in the narrow overlap between when the flowers are open and when bees are flying.
- LycheeLitchi chinensisOne of the most valuable subtropical orchard flows there is, and a crop whose yield rises measurably where colonies are present.
- RambutanNephelium lappaceumA reliable orchard flow, and one where bee pollination measurably lifts fruit set — most rambutan trees carry functionally male and hermaphrodite flowers and need the transfer.
- 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.
- MangiumAcacia mangiumA substantial plantation flow across Southeast Asia, produced by a mechanism most beekeeping literature does not cover — extrafloral nectar, secreted by the leaf rather than the flower.
- TamarindTamarindus indicaA valuable hot-season source across India and the Sahel, and one of the few substantial flows available immediately before the rains.
- NiaouliMelaleuca quinquenerviaA heavy and reliable flow wherever it grows, which is a substantial part of why it is tolerated in places that would otherwise remove it.
- Sweet thornVachellia karrooA major southern African honey crop and, in many districts, the single most important source there is.
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisA heavy year-round pollen source and a poor nectar one, which makes plantation apiaries protein-rich and carbohydrate-poor — a genuine management problem rather than a technicality.
- BushwillowCombretum speciesA major and under-documented African honey source, second only to the acacias across much of the savannah belt.
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraA major dry-season source in Chiapas and in the Brazilian caatinga, and one that increases rather than decreases with land clearance — which is an uncomfortable thing to be able to say about a honey plant.
- AngicoAnadenanthera colubrinaA principal source of the caatinga honey that northeastern Brazil exports in quantity, much of it organic-certified.
- TiacaCaldcluvia paniculataThe second half of the Chilean native-forest season, extending the crop by several weeks after ulmo finishes.
- ChañarGeoffroea decorticansA short, heavy and locally important spring flow across the Argentine dry interior.
- StringybarkEucalyptus macrorhyncha and related speciesOne of the mainstays of Australian commercial honey production, valued for both a heavy nectar flow and good pollen.
- PaperbarkMelaleuca speciesA reliable coastal and wetland flow across eastern Australia, and valuable partly because it occupies ground the drier eucalypts do not.
- Yellow gumEucalyptus leucoxylonAmong the most valuable winter forage trees in southern Australia, and widely planted in shelterbelts and street plantings for that reason.
- Swamp mahoganyEucalyptus robustaA keystone winter nectar source for the whole east coast fauna, and a substantial commercial honey flow alongside that.
- Five fingerPseudopanax arboreusThe principal winter forage across much of lowland New Zealand, and important to native birds as much as to bees.
- TowaiWeinmannia silvicolaThe first native forest crop of the northern New Zealand season, and one that is increasingly marketed on its own terms rather than blended.
- WilgaGeijera parvifloraA dependable inland source when the rains have come, and one of the few trees that gives the western New South Wales apiaries anything at all in winter.
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