Pine family plants for bees
Conifers produce no nectar at all and still yield some of Europe's most valuable honey. The mechanism is not pollination — it is aphids.
Why this family matters
This family is in the catalogue to make one point that nothing else makes as clearly. Silver fir, Norway spruce and Scots pine are wind-pollinated, have no flowers in any useful sense, and secrete no nectar whatsoever. Yet forest honeydew honey, fir honey and pine honey are among the most sought-after in Europe. The sugar comes from sap-feeding insects — aphids and scale insects — that tap the tree's phloem, take the nitrogen they need and excrete the excess sugar onto the needles, where bees collect it. The honey is chemically distinct: higher in minerals, higher in pH, and containing oligosaccharides that floral honeys lack.
When it flowers
The flowering columns for this family are effectively meaningless, and the calendar records the cone-bearing period rather than a nectar window. The honeydew flow itself runs from June to September and depends entirely on aphid population cycles, which vary enormously year to year.
Which bees it serves
Honey bees collect honeydew directly from needles and bark. There is no pollination relationship at all — the bees are harvesting an insect by-product from a tree that neither needs nor rewards them. Greek fir honey and Black Forest fir honey are the best-known products.
Worth knowing before you plant it
A honeydew flow is the least predictable event in European beekeeping. Aphid populations collapse and boom for reasons that have little to do with the weather the beekeeper can see, and a good fir year cannot be planned for.
Pine 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 | nothing | No | No |
| February | nothing | No | No |
| March | nothing | No | No |
| April | nothing | No | No |
| May | nothing | No | No |
| June | 2 | No | No |
| July | 3 | No | Yes |
| August | 3 | No | Yes |
| September | 3 | No | Yes |
| October | 1 | No | Yes |
| November | 1 | No | Yes |
| December | nothing | No | No |
What this group does not cover
Nothing in flower: January, February, March, April, May, December. Planting only from this group would leave those months empty.
Flowers but no meaningful pollen: June. Nectar feeds adult foragers and pollen feeds brood, so a plan supplying only the first starves the next generation.
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
- Silver fir honeyMalty, resinous and barely sweet, with a balsamic depth and a long woody finish. One of the least sugary honeys there is.
- Forest honeydew honeyResinous, malty and mineral, with far less sweetness than its darkness suggests. Closer to treacle and pine forest than to anything floral.
- Greek fir honeyMildly sweet, resinous and faintly caramelised, with a soft woody character and none of the sharpness of the darker honeydews — considerably gentler than its colour suggests.
- Vosges fir honeyBalsamic and malty with a resinous woody depth and a marked lack of sweetness — closer to treacle and pine resin than to anything floral.
- Spruce honeydew honeyMalty and caramelised with a woody depth and restrained sweetness — warmer and less balsamic than fir honeydew.
- Pine honeydew honeyResinous, malty and markedly less sweet than floral honey, with a woody, slightly salty depth and no floral character at all.
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
- Cashew and mango family
- Palm family
- Ivy family
- Oak and chestnut family
- Leatherwood 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?