Chiuri

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Chiuri is principally bat-pollinated, and flying foxes are protected in some chiuri-growing communities for that reason. Honey bees take the nectar without being the tree's evolved pollinator.

Worth knowing

A valuable winter nectar source in the Himalayan mid-hills, where alternatives are scarce.

Flowering

In flower

December to February (northern hemisphere)

A winter flowering, which is unusual for the region and dependent on mild conditions in the mid-hills.

When nectar flows

Generous for the season, from very large flower clusters.

Year-to-year variation

Small and localised. Chiuri butter from the seeds is the more important product economically.

What it does to the honey

Contributes a warm nutty depth with a faint smokiness over dark caramel.

Growing it

Conditions

Steep, well-drained subtropical hill slopes with a distinct dry winter. Not a temperate garden tree.

Size

15-20 m tall.

Native range

The mid-hills of Nepal, northern India and Bhutan, on steep slopes and cliff edges between 300 and 1,500 metres.

Suits

Large gardens

• Grown from seed in Nepal and slow to establish.
• The tree's significance is social and economic as much as botanical, and groves are managed rather than wild.
• Frost-tender and unsuited to temperate cultivation.

What it looks like

A large deciduous tree with big leathery leaves clustered at the branch tips and dense clusters of small cream flowers appearing on bare branches in winter, followed by fleshy fruits with oil-rich seeds.