Protea family plants for bees
Banksia, macadamia and rewarewa — southern-hemisphere flowers built for birds, which bees exploit anyway.
Why this family matters
Proteaceae flowers are brush or cone structures holding very large quantities of dilute nectar, and they evolved primarily for bird and small-mammal pollination rather than for insects. Bees are opportunists here rather than intended partners, and they do very well out of it: banksia and rewarewa both yield substantial honey crops. Macadamia adds a commercial dimension, since the nut crop depends heavily on managed pollination and honey is the by-product.
When it flowers
Southern-hemisphere and long. Banksia flowers March to August — the Australian autumn and winter — which makes it one of the few genuinely cold-season nectar sources anywhere. Macadamia flowers August to October, rewarewa October to December.
Which bees it serves
Honey bees and native Australian stingless bees both work banksia, alongside honeyeaters and small marsupials. This is a family where the flower is not designed for the bee at all, which is a useful corrective to the assumption that flowers exist for bees.
Protea family plants in the catalogue
What this group covers
10 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 | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| April | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| May | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| June | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| July | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| August | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| September | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| October | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| November | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| December | 1 | Yes | Yes |
What this group does not cover
Nothing in flower: January, February. 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
- Banksia honeyStrong, malty and savoury with a burnt-caramel depth and a distinctly salty-mineral edge.
- Western Australian wildflower honeyComplex and variable, generally warm and lightly caramelised with a resinous myrtaceous lift and considerable site-to-site difference.
- Macadamia honeyMalty and nutty with a roasted depth and a butterscotch base — one of the few honeys that genuinely tastes like the crop it came from.
- Rewarewa honeyMalty and burnt-caramel with a dry astringent finish — closer to a dark ale than to a floral honey.
- New Zealand bush honeyWarm and rounded with a light caramel base and a faint resinous lift, and considerable variation between regions — generally more approachable than any of its monofloral components.
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
- Primrose family
- Asparagus family
- Currant family
- Elder and viburnum family
- Pine 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?