Pea family plants for bees

Pea family plants in the catalogue

• White cloverTrifolium repensMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• AlfalfaMedicago sativaJune to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• Red cloverTrifolium pratenseMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
• Bird's-foot trefoilLotus corniculatusMay to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
• CarobCeratonia siliquaSeptember to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
• Sweet cloverMelilotus officinalisJune to August. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• Chinese milk vetchAstragalus sinicusMarch to May. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• GorseUlex europaeusJanuary to December. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
• Tufted vetchVicia craccaJune to August. Nectar very high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
• BroomCytisus scopariusApril to June. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
• Black locustRobinia pseudoacaciaMay to June. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
• SainfoinOnobrychis viciifoliaMay to July. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• MesquiteProsopisApril to August. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• Japanese pagoda treeStyphnolobium japonicumJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
• Field beanVicia fabaMay to July. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
• LogwoodHaematoxylum campechianumJanuary to April. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
• KaranjPongamia pinnataMarch to May. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
• MopaneColophospermum mopaneSeptember to December. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
• Crimson cloverTrifolium incarnatumMay to July. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
• BabulVachellia niloticaAugust to November. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• Talh acaciaVachellia seyalFebruary to April. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• MangiumAcacia mangiumFebruary to May. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
• TamarindTamarindus indicaApril to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
• Sweet thornVachellia karrooNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• SoybeanGlycine maxJuly to August. Nectar moderate, pollen low.Minor honey crop
• TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• AngicoAnadenanthera colubrinaSeptember to November. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
• ChañarGeoffroea decorticansSeptember to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop

What this group covers

12 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.

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.

• Western honey bee
• Bumblebees
• Leafcutter bees
• White-tailed bumblebee
• Egyptian honey bee
• Long-horned bees
• Caucasian honey bee
• Shrill carder bee
• Short-haired bumblebee
• Moss carder bee
• Brown-banded carder bee
• Ruderal bumblebee

Honeys from these plants

• Clover honeyWarm, mild and rounded — sweet with a faint cinnamon-and-hay note underneath. The taste most English-speaking readers picture when they read the word honey.
• Wildflower honeyVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.
• Berseem honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint hay note — the archetype of an unassuming everyday honey.
• Alfalfa honeyMild, clean and slightly grassy, with a beeswax note and very little else. A background honey, and good at being one.
• Tree lucerne honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint nutty note — pleasant, undemanding and mostly eaten by bees rather than people.
• Alpine meadow honeyComplex and aromatic, with a herbal lift over warm caramel and a distinctly clean finish — the flavour of a great many plants rather than of any one.
• Ak balMild, creamy and delicately floral with a faint herbal lift — the texture is much of the appeal, dense and smooth and dissolving rather than sticky.
• Carob honeyDark, malty and distinctly savoury with a fermented, almost cheesy note that people either find fascinating or cannot get past.
• Sweet clover honeyWarm, sweet and hay-like with a soft vanilla note that is genuinely there rather than imagined — the clearest coumarin character of any common honey.
• Siberian taiga honeyComplex and warm with a herbal lift over caramel, and a density that comes directly from the low moisture — thick, concentrated and long on the palate.
• Prairie honeyClean, mild and creamy, with a light floral sweetness. The reference point for what a great many people think honey tastes like.
• Milk vetch honeySoft, mild and slightly floral with a faint green-bean freshness — an unassuming honey made in enormous quantity.