Nectar secretion dynamics and honey production potentials of some major honey plants in Saudi Arabia

Journal Article

Alqarni, Nuru Adgaba , Ahmed Al-Ghamdi , Yilma Tadesse , Awraris Getachew , Awad M. Awad , Mohammad J. Ansari , Ayman A. Owayss , Seif Eldin A. Mohammed , Abdulaziz S. . 2016

• المجلة \ الصحيفة: Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences
• رقم العدد: 1
• رقم الإصدار السنوي: 1
• الصفحات: 1-12

مستخلص المنشور

Honey bee plants are those plant species that provide bees with
food sources in the form of nectar and/or pollen. According to
Crane (1990), only 16% of the world’s flowering plant species
contribute to honey bees as food sources. Moreover, not all
bee plants are equally important to bees and honey production.
Indeed, only 1.6% of the world’s honey bee plants are
the sources of most of the world’s honey (Crane, 1990). This
indicates that for every geographical region there are very
few important honey source plants and it is of paramount
importance to characterize them according to their degree of
importance in honey production. Several studies have been
performed on different plant species to quantify nectar secretion
and to explore its dynamics, mainly in relation to pollination
biology, floral phenology and biophysical environmental
factors (e.g., Petanidou and Smets, 1996; Castellanos et al.,
2002; Galetto and Bernardello, 2004). Moreover, quantitative
studies on the nectar secretion of various melliferous plants
have been conducted (Pesti, 1976; Mohr and Jay, 1990; Nepi
et al., 2001; Farkas and Orosz-Kova´ cs, 2003; Horva´ th and
Orosz-Kova´ cs, 2004; Zaja´ cz et al., 2006). In addition, based
on thorough studies of dynamics of nectar secretion and total
soluble solids (TSS) concentration, it has been possible to estimate
the honey production potentials of some major honey
source plants such as Trifolium pratense L. (red clover)
(883 kg of honey/ha/flowering season; Szabo and Najda,
1985); Asclepias syriaca L. (milkweed) (500–600 kg honey/ha/
flowering season; Zsidei, 1993) and Phacelia tanacetifolia
Benth (60–360 kg honey/ha/flowering season; Nagy, 2002).
In addition, Crane et al. (1984) reported that the honey production
potential of different Tilia (lime) species ranged from
90 to 1200 kg honey/ha. Moreover, Kim et al. (2011) estimated
the amount of nectar secreted per flower and per tree for
Crataegus pinnatifida Bunge (Chinese hawthorn).