Leatherwood family plants for bees
A southern-hemisphere family that supplies three of the most distinctive temperate rainforest honeys in the world, from forests with no northern equivalent.
Why this family matters
This is a family of the southern temperate rainforests — Tasmania, New Zealand and southern Chile — and it is the reason those places produce honeys that taste like nothing in Europe. Leatherwood is the most famous: a Tasmanian endemic producing an intensely aromatic honey that makes up a large share of the state's crop. Tiaca and towai fill the same role in Chile and New Zealand respectively. All three carry racemes or panicles of many small open flowers with easily accessible nectar, and all three depend on forest that is under pressure.
When it flowers
Southern-hemisphere summer for leatherwood and tiaca — January to March — and spring for towai, from October. The catalogue records these on southern-hemisphere months rather than translating them, because a six-month shift would be an approximation rather than a fact.
Which bees it serves
Worked by introduced honey bees almost entirely, since these forests evolved with bird and insect pollinators rather than with Apis. In Chile the native Patagonian bumblebee works the same flowers and has declined sharply following the introduction of commercial European bumblebees — one of the better-documented cases of its kind.
Worth knowing before you plant it
All three depend on old-growth or long-regenerating native forest, and access to it is contested in each country. Tasmanian leatherwood honey in particular is directly tied to forestry policy, which makes the honey an argument about land use as much as a product.
Leatherwood family plants in the catalogue
What this group covers
6 of 12 months have something in flower. Nectar and pollen are counted separately and a month counts only where at least one plant offers that resource at moderate value or better — a plant in flower is not the same as a plant worth visiting.
| Month | In flower | Nectar | Pollen |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| February | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| March | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| April | nothing | No | No |
| May | nothing | No | No |
| June | nothing | No | No |
| July | nothing | No | No |
| August | nothing | No | No |
| September | nothing | No | No |
| October | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| November | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| December | 1 | Yes | Yes |
What this group does not cover
Nothing in flower: April, May, June, July, August, September. Planting only from this group would leave those months empty.
Bees these plants are recorded with
Taken from the relationships on each plant record. These are the well-attested associations rather than an exhaustive list of visitors, so treat the number as a floor.
Honeys from these plants
- Leatherwood honeyPowerfully perfumed and slightly spicy — musk, warm blossom and something faintly balsamic. Distinctive to the point of being polarising.
- Tiaca honeySoft, floral and clean — gentler and less aromatic than ulmo from the same forest, and easier to eat in quantity.
- Towai honeyVery pale and delicate with a faint butterscotch sweetness — noticeably lighter and milder than kamahi from the same genus.
Other families
- Daisy family
- Mint family
- Rose family
- Pea family
- Honeysuckle family
- Heather family
- Buttercup family
- Myrtle family
- Cabbage family
- Borage family
- Carrot family
- Mallow family
- Onion family
- Buckthorn family
- Maple and horse chestnut family
- Sapodilla family
- Plantain family
- Citrus family
- Protea family
- Primrose family
- Asparagus family
- Currant family
- Elder and viburnum family
- Pine family
- Cashew and mango family
- Palm family
- Ivy family
- Oak and chestnut family
- Spurge family
Plan with these
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?