Honey Plants of Forests, Meadows, and Shrub Thickets
The honey flora in the forests, meadows, and among the shrubs is particularly rich and diverse. Among them, wild fruit and berry plants play a significant role as honey plants: wild apple, pear, plum, cherry, currant, raspberry, almond, and others. These plants have a large share in the zone of nut-bearing forests, where they are mainly distributed. Additionally, the forest zone is rich in meadow honey plants, which include: oregano, fireweed, meadow clover, motherwort, shemuir, whorled sage, dead nettle, geraniums, tube flower, catnip, vetch, coltsfoot, and others.
Shrubs also play an important role, especially rosehip, caragana, meadowsweet, honeysuckle, barberry, sea buckthorn, and others, as well as tree species such as rowan, bird cherry, hawthorn, and birch.
Here is a brief description of some honey plants from forests, meadows, and shrubs.
Kyrgyz Apple Tree, in Kyrgyz: kara-alma. A tree 8–10 m tall with a rounded crown. Blooms in April – May.
Grows in the nut-bearing forests of the Fergana and Chatkal ranges. A good honey plant.
Sversky Apple Tree, in Kyrgyz: kyzyl-alma. A tree 4–5 m tall with a compact crown. Blooms in April and May.
Grows along the edges of the forests of Kavak-Tau, Big and Small Kemin, Kyrgyz, Talas, Fergana, and Chatkal ranges. A good honey plant.
Malus niedzwetzkyana. A small tree with purple flowers. Blooms in April and May. Grows along the edges of nut-bearing forests in the Chatkal range and Talas. A good honey plant.
Korzhinsky Pear. A tree 10–12 m tall. Blooms in May and June. Grows on dry slopes among shrubs in the nut-bearing forests of the Fergana and Chatkal ranges. A good honey plant.
Petunnikova Almond, from the Rosaceae family. A shrub up to 1 m tall with non-spiny branches. Blooms in April, grows among forests and shrubs on stony slopes in Talas and Chatkal. A good honey plant.
Spiny Almond, Badamcha, from the Rosaceae family. A shrub up to 2 m tall with spiny branches. Blooms in April and May. Grows on stony and clayey slopes up to an absolute height of 1500 m in the Fergana range.
A good honey plant.
Tian Shan Cherry, from the Rosaceae family. Commonly found in all regions of Kyrgyzstan in the lower and middle mountain belts, on dry rocky slopes and river terraces. The bushes of the plant reach up to 2 m in height and are abundantly covered with pink flowers. In various regions and at different altitudes, Tian Shan cherry blooms at different times, starting from the beginning of April until the end of June.
The flowers of the cherry are eagerly visited by bees. They produce a lot of nectar. Cherry is a good honey plant.
Magolib Cherry, Antipka. A low tree 3–6 m tall. Blooms in May. Grows in forests and river valleys in the zone of nut-bearing forests of the Fergana, Chatkal, and Turkestan ranges. A good honey plant.
Sogdian Plum, Alycha, from the Rosaceae family. A low tree or shrub 2.5–4 m tall. Blooms in March and April. Widely distributed in the nut-bearing forest zone of the Chatkal and Fergana ranges. Grows in the underbrush and on the edges, along river valleys. A good honey plant. Honey productivity is up to 40 kg per hectare.
Common Oregano, from the Lamiaceae family. This is the main honey plant of Kyrgyzstan. Oregano is widely distributed in meadows, forests, among shrubs, in forest clearings, along riverbanks, and in meadow-steppes. In some tall grass meadows, it makes up more than 50% of the herbaceous layer.
It is a perennial plant with straight, purple-colored, and hairy stems, reaching 20–90 cm in height. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, and elongated-ovate. The inflorescence is in the form of an umbellate panicle. The flowers are small, light purple or lilac-pink, rarely white. The entire plant has a pleasant fragrance.
It blooms from June to September. Honey productivity is about 100 kg per hectare. The honey is light yellow, has medicinal properties, is very pleasant to taste, and aromatic.
Small-flowered Oregano. It is no less honey-bearing than common oregano but grows among forests, meadows, and steppes in southern Kyrgyzstan: in the Chatkal, Fergana, and Alai ranges.
Both species are medicinal, essential oil-bearing, and vitamin-rich.
Chamerion, or Ivan-tea, from the Onagraceae family. In high mountain meadows, on forest clearings, clearings, along riverbanks and streams, among shrubs of Central Tien Shan, Kemin, and Kyrgyz ranges, fireweed is often found. In some places, especially in the mountains, it forms a continuous carpet.
This herbaceous perennial plant has lanceolate leaves and fairly large lilac flowers gathered in racemes. M. M. Glukhov considers fireweed to be an outstanding honey plant, unmatched in its qualities.
Fireweed blooms from late June to mid-September. It provides nectar, pollen, and a sticky substance. The nectar is easily accessible to bees: On average, one flower secretes up to 12–26 mg of nectar. The first flowers of the inflorescence are the most nectar-rich.
The best nectar yield is observed at high temperatures (24–28°C) and high soil moisture, mainly in the first half of the day. The nectar productivity of fireweed is extraordinarily high — 500–600 kg per hectare, and in favorable years — up to 1000 kg per hectare. In addition to nectar, bees collect pollen from fireweed, from which they produce glue. The honey is greenish, with a delicate spicy taste; it crystallizes quickly.
Meadow Clover, or Red Clover, from the Fabaceae family, in Kyrgyz: bede. This is a perennial or 3–4-year-old plant with numerous upright stems, sometimes reaching 120 cm in height. It grows in meadows, along riverbanks, in nut-bearing forests in all regions of Kyrgyzstan. In some areas, it is cultivated on irrigated lands.
The inflorescence is in the form of an egg-shaped elongated head. The flowers are pinkish-reddish, sometimes with purple or pale shades.
It is a honey-bearing, medicinal, and fodder plant, as well as a plant that improves the structure and composition of the soil.
Bees collect nectar and pollen from red clover. The honey crystallizes weakly and has a reddish-yellow color.
Nectar productivity is 260 kg per hectare.
White Clover, or Creeping Clover. White clover is a perennial plant with creeping stems and loose heads of white flowers.
It grows in all regions of Kyrgyzstan in meadows, gardens, near irrigation ditches, along riverbanks, on fallow lands, and is sometimes found in pastures, where it forms continuous carpets.
It blooms from May to October.
A good honey plant, but the yield is inconsistent. Honey productivity is 48 kg per hectare.
Motherwort, or Heart Herb, from the Lamiaceae family. It is widely distributed in Kyrgyzstan. Motherwort invades pastures, abundantly grows near campsites, in gardens, in orchards, on forest strips, in dump sites, and landfills. However, it is most commonly found in meadow and steppe pastures and forest clearings, in forests and among shrubs. The four-sided stem of motherwort reaches 40–200 cm in height and is covered with palmate-divided leaves.
The flowers are pale purple or dirty pink, bilabiate, gathered in dense clusters in the leaf axils. Depending on the conditions, the size of the flowers varies greatly. Each flower blooms for two days, while the entire plant, containing about 2700 flowers, blooms from June to August. The flowers produce a lot of nectar and a little pollen. The average nectar yield per flower is 0.5–1 mg. The nectar contains a large amount of sugar, is transparent in color, and has a slight bitterness. The honey is heavy, straw-yellow in color, with a distinctive smell. Nectar productivity is high, around 300 kg per hectare. The honey is medicinal, just like the plant itself.
Shemuir, Zopnik, or Honey Plant, from the Lamiaceae family. In Kyrgyzstan, there are 13 species of this genus. All species are good honey plants, especially for Caucasian long-tongued bees. The flowers of shemuir have a very long and narrow tube, making nectar hard to access.
Among all species, the mountain and meadow shemuir deserve special attention, as the meadows they form occupy vast areas.
These meadows are widely distributed in almost all regions of Kyrgyzstan. On them, shemuir makes up about 70% of the herbaceous layer.
Meadow shemuir is a perennial grass with a four-sided stem, reaching 70 cm in height. The stems are often purple, hairy at the lower part and under the inflorescence. The leaves are heart-shaped and rough.
The flowers are bluish-pink, bilabiate, gathered in whorls on a long inflorescence.
It blooms from July to September. Bees on shemuir meadows provide good honey yields.
Mountain shemuir forms subalpine meadows located at the upper forest boundary. In terms of honey productivity, it is comparable to meadow shemuir. Other species of shemuir are also honey-bearing.