Yellow gum

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

The pendulous brush flowers are worked heavily by honey bees and by honeyeaters, and the winter timing means the competition for them is intense.

Worth knowing

Among the most valuable winter forage trees in southern Australia, and widely planted in shelterbelts and street plantings for that reason.

Flowering

In flower

May to September (southern hemisphere)

Autumn and winter flowering, which is what makes it valuable rather than merely productive.

When nectar flows

Generous, and much of its worth lies in supplying nectar and pollen through the southern winter when colonies would otherwise be consuming stores.

Year-to-year variation

More regular than most eucalypts, which is part of why it is planted deliberately for bees.

What it does to the honey

Gives a pale to mid amber honey with a clean, mildly aromatic character and a soft finish — lighter than most eucalypt honeys.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun on well-drained soil, drought-tolerant and moderately frost-hardy.

Size

10-25 m.

Native range

South Australia, western Victoria and adjacent New South Wales.

Suits

Large gardens, Farm scale

• Widely used as a street and shelterbelt tree in southern Australia, partly for its winter flowering.
• The red-flowered forms are ornamental and the bee value is the same.

What it looks like

A medium tree with smooth yellow-grey bark shedding in patches, narrow adult leaves and pendulous clusters of cream, pink or red stamen-brush flowers.