Menyanthes like a honey plant
Photo A bee on a menyanthes flower collects nectar
The small, white flowers of the menyanthes are often seen in damp areas near rivers and swamps. Despite the inconspicuousness of the flowers, the menyanthes as a honey plant provides nectar and pollen to bees.
Description of the honey plant menyanthes three-leaved
Menyanthes honey plant, Latin name Menyanthes trifoliata L.
A perennial bare marsh plant of the shifting family (Menyanthaceae), with a long creeping, jointed, ascending leafy rhizome at the end, bearing leafless flowering stems, 20-35 cm high. The severed pieces take root easily.
The leaves are alternate, entire, 3-15 cm long, 1.5-7 cm wide, on petioles up to 10-30 cm long with a tripartite blade having obovate lobes.
The flowers of the watch are bell-shaped, funnel-shaped, pinkish-white, with a five-parted limb, collected on the flower arrow with a thick brush.
The fruit is a single-locular, ovoid, double-leaf capsule with large, smooth seeds.
Distribution of honey plant menyanthes
The honey plant menyanthes is widespread throughout the temperate zone in Europe and Asia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The menyanthes honey plant usually grows in large thickets in swamps, ditches, banks of rivers and lakes, and often forms continuous thickets.
Menyanthes like a honey plant
What are the benefits of a menyanthes for bees?
Honey plant menyanthes blooms from mid-May to August. Its flowers secrete nectar, which provides supporting honey flow for the bees.
Nectar productivity of 100 flowers menyanthes is within 22.8-33.0 mg. According to available data, the honey productivity of the shift is 15-18 kg per 1 hectare of continuous thickets. In addition to nectar, the menyanthes for bees serves as a source of pollen; bees on the flowers of the menyanthes collect orange pollen. In swampy places, the menyanthes plant provides honey for bees along with blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries, cloudberries, wild rosemary and other honey plants of swamps and forest edges.