Blueberries as a honey plant

The blueberry honey plant is often found in temperate forests in Europe.

Content

• Description of blueberry honey plant
• Where blueberries grow like a honey plant
• When blueberries bloom like a honey plant
• Blueberry honey productivity
• Blueberry honey

 

 

Description of blueberry honey plant

The honey plant blueberry - the Latin name Vaccinium myrtillus L. - is a low-growing branchy shrub from the heather family (Ericaceae) that reaches a height of 15-40 cm. Underground shoots (stolons) branch out in the soil in different directions up to 1-2 meters, forming bushes of one plants.

The blueberry stem is green, gray at the base, erect with sharply ribbed bare branches.

Blueberry leaves are small, thin, oblong, shiny, bright green, alternate, ovate, falling in winter, 1-3 cm long, 0.6-1.8 cm wide.

Blueberry flowers are spherical, small, pinkish-white, with a greenish-orange, sometimes delicate lilac tint, 0.4-0.6 mm long, with a fused corolla, drooping, one or two on short pedicels. They are located singly in the axils of the leaves. Corolla pitcher-shaped or hemispherical with serrated limb. Stamens ten, pistil with lower ovary.

The blueberry fruit is a spherical blue-black rounded berry with a remnant of a calyx 6-13 mm in diameter, usually covered with a bluish wax coating. The flesh of the berries is reddish-purple. The taste is sour-sweet, pleasant, astringent.

Where blueberries grow like a honey plant

Blueberry honey plant is undemanding to the soil. Blueberries grow as a honey plant mainly in coniferous and mixed, less often in small-leaved forests, on moderately humid and. even in marshy soils. Blueberry honey plant often grows in tussocks and occupies the outskirts of sphagnum bogs. In the mountains it rises to a height of up to 2,000 meters.

Pine forests are often completely covered with blueberry thickets.

 

When blueberries bloom like a honey plant

When blueberries bloom as a honey plant depends on the region. In the Middle Urals, blueberries bloom like a honey plant from May 20 to June 20.

In the temperate zone of Europe, blueberries bloom in late May - early June for 10-15 days. The flowers are pinkish.

Blueberry honey productivity

On warm days, blooming blueberries are actively visited by bees, collecting a lot of nectar from it. A strong bee family, under favorable weather conditions, produces up to 2.5 kg of honey per day from blueberry thickets.

The honey productivity of blueberries fluctuates sharply over the years and is 25-180 kg per 1 hectare. But in most regions, blueberries as a honey plant provide a supportive honey flow.

Blueberry honey

What kind of honey do bees collect from blueberry flowers. Blueberry honey is light, with a reddish tint, very fragrant, pleasant to the taste.