Shea

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years

Which bees, and why

Field studies in Burkina Faso and Ghana report large increases in shea fruit set where pollinators have access, which is why beekeeping and shea production are increasingly promoted together across the parkland belt.

Worth knowing

A good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the West African savannah.

Flowering

In flower

January to April (northern hemisphere)

A dry-season flow, with the tree flowering before the leaves in the hottest months.

When nectar flows

Generous. The dense flower clusters are strongly scented and heavily worked.

Year-to-year variation

Reliable where parkland is intact. Flowering intensity varies between years.

What it does to the honey

Contributes a warm nutty and buttery richness over a light caramel base.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun on poor dry savannah soil, with a marked dry season. Fire-resistant bark allows it to survive the annual grass fires that shape the landscape.

Size

10-15 m tall, with a broad spreading crown and a very long life.

Native range

The savannah belt of West and Central Africa, from Senegal to Uganda and Ethiopia.

Suits

Large gardens, Farm scale

• Extremely slow to mature — a tree may take fifteen to twenty years to fruit and can live for centuries.
• Cannot practically be plantation-grown at scale, which is why shea remains a wild-harvested parkland product.
• Not a temperate garden tree.

What it looks like

A gnarled deciduous tree with thick corky fire-resistant bark and leathery leaves clustered at the branch tips, carrying dense clusters of small fragrant cream flowers before the leaves.