Gallberry

Value to bees

Nectar

Very high

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years

Which bees, and why

Worked heavily by honey bees. The plant is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, so bees are genuinely required for berry set — and the berries are an important winter food for birds.

Worth knowing

An excellent late-spring nectar source across the southeastern coastal plain.

Flowering

In flower

May to June (northern hemisphere)

A three to four week window in late spring, slightly earlier in Florida than further north.

When nectar flows

Heavy where the shrub is abundant, and gallberry country in Georgia and Florida is one of the classic American honey landscapes.

Year-to-year variation

Dependent on the extent and management of pine flatwoods. Fire suppression allows the habitat to close over, and drainage removes it outright, so the crop has declined with the habitat.

What it does to the honey

Light amber, mild and heavy-bodied with a clean sweetness and a slightly spicy finish. Its resistance to crystallising made it the classic honey for cut comb and chunk honey.

Growing it

Conditions

Acid, moist to wet soil in sun or part shade. It tolerates genuinely boggy ground where most shrubs fail.

Size

1-2.5 m tall and spreading by suckers into colonies.

Native range

The coastal plain of the eastern and southeastern United States, from Nova Scotia to Texas, in wet pine flatwoods and bogs.

Suits

Small gardens, Hedgerow

• Plant male and female plants together if berries are wanted.
• Suits wet acid ground and rain gardens, where its tolerance of waterlogging is genuinely useful.
• Suckers steadily; give it room or expect to manage the spread.

What it looks like

A rounded evergreen shrub with small glossy dark leaves, unlike a typical holly in having no spines. The flowers are small and greenish-white, and black berries follow on female plants.