Jarrah

Value to bees

Nectar

Very high

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years

Which bees, and why

Worked heavily by honey bees during a flowering. Southwestern Australia has an exceptionally rich native bee fauna, much of it associated with the same eucalypt and myrtle flora.

Worth knowing

A major nectar and pollen source in years when it flowers heavily.

Flowering

In flower

September to January (southern hemisphere)

Flowering is irregular — heavy years are frequently separated by one or two poor ones, which is characteristic of eucalypts.

When nectar flows

Very heavy in a good year, and beekeepers move substantial numbers of hives into the jarrah forest when a flowering is signalled.

Year-to-year variation

Boom and bust. A heavy jarrah year produces an enormous crop and the intervening years produce very little, so the honey's availability swings sharply.

What it does to the honey

Dark reddish-amber, rich and malty with a distinct caramel character and a slight astringency. It is thick and slow to crystallise because of its unusually low glucose content.

Growing it

Conditions

Free-draining, often gravelly, nutrient-poor soil in full sun, and adapted to a Mediterranean climate of wet winters and hot dry summers.

Size

30-40 m tall in good forest, with a trunk to 3 m across.

Native range

The southwest of Western Australia, in a forest type found nowhere else and recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot.

Suits

Large gardens

• A forest tree far too large for most gardens.
• Adapted to very low-phosphorus soils and can be damaged by ordinary fertiliser.
• The jarrah forest is threatened by dieback caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi, which is spread on vehicle tyres and boots and is the principal management concern.

What it looks like

A large forest tree with rough fibrous grey-brown bark and stiff, curved, dark green leaves paler beneath. The flowers are creamy white clusters of stamens, typical of the genus.