HoneyHQ

Tamarisk

TamarixTamaricaceaeShrub

Salt-tolerant desert shrubs of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, excreting salt through their leaves and growing where almost nothing else can. The sweet secretions of scale insects on Sinai tamarisk are the most widely accepted natural candidate for the manna of Exodus, which gives this shrub an unusual footnote among honey plants.

Where not to plant it

Seriously invasive along river systems in the American southwest, where it lowers water tables, salts the soil surface through leaf fall, and displaces native cottonwood and willow across enormous areas. Control programmes including biological control with introduced beetles have been running for decades.

Value to bees

Nectar
Moderate
Pollen
Moderate
As a honey crop
Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally
Which bees, and why
Bees work both the small flowers and the honeydew. Ants take a large share of the same secretions, which is why the manna described in Exodus had to be gathered early in the morning before the day warmed.
Worth knowing
A useful summer nectar source on saline and desert ground where little else flowers, plus a honeydew component.

Flowering

In flower
May to August (northern hemisphere)

The shrub's own flowering, with the scale insect honeydew season overlapping and extending it.

When nectar flows
Modest from the small flowers, and supplemented substantially by honeydew from scale insects.
Year-to-year variation
Variable and dependent on both flowering and insect populations.

What it does to the honey

Contributes a dark mineral maltiness with a distinct faint salinity reflecting the ground the shrub grows on.

Growing it

Conditions
Full sun, extremely tolerant of salt, drought and poor soil. It draws water from deep and concentrates salt in its leaves, which then salts the ground beneath it.
Size
3-8 m tall depending on species.
Native range
North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and southern Europe. Seriously invasive along river systems in the American southwest.
Suits
Hedgerow, Large gardens, Farm scale
  • Exceptionally tolerant of coastal salt spray, which makes it a useful windbreak on exposed shores.
  • Prune hard after flowering to keep it from becoming leggy.
  • Do not plant in the American southwest or anywhere with vulnerable riparian systems.

What it looks like

A feathery shrub or small tree with tiny scale-like leaves on fine drooping branchlets and dense plumes of very small pink or white flowers, giving a soft hazy appearance.

Sources

  • HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
  • The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting — Routledge (1999) · Historical text

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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