Ziziphora desert honey plant
The melliferous plant ziziphora or kiyik ut (Latin name Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam.), is a perennial subshrub or annual herbs with a woody, thick rhizome. In the conditions of Central Asia, ziziphora is a honey plant important for beekeeping.
Description of the honey plant ziziphora
The stems of ziziphora, 8–40 cm high, are covered with short hairs.
The leaves of ziziphora are ovate, entire or barely toothed, slightly hairy.
The flowers of ziziphora are small, mauve, in a few false whorls, very often crowded in the upper part of the stem and branches, sessile or on peduncles. The calyx is elongated, narrowly tubular with 13 veins, and hairy at the throat. The corolla is small with a barely protruding upwardly widened tube without a ring of hairs.
Ziziphora as a honey plant
Several species of ziziphora are important for beekeeping as honey plants; they are all excellent honey plants of the dry steppe herbs.
Ziziphora blooms from the second half of June - in July. The daily weight gain of the control hive during the flowering of ziziphora is up to 15 kg.
Grows in the Mediterranean, Europe, Western and Central Asia.
It is found in meadows, gravelly and rocky slopes, rocky river banks, mainly in the subalpine zone of the region.
Honey plant ziziphora pediculum
Honey plant ziziphora pediculum - its stems are numerous, thin, branched, often purple-colored, leaves are lanceolate. Ziziphora flowers are in multi-flowered capitate inflorescences at the tops of stems and branches, the corollas are light purple. It grows on the rocky-crushed slopes of the lower and middle zone of the mountains of the Tashkent region. Ziziphora is widespread in mid-mountain juniper forests. They bloom from mid-June for about a month.
Honey plant ziziphora short-cupped
The short-cupped ziziphora honey plant is a species close to the previous one, common in the mountain steppes of the Fergana, Samarkand and Surkhandarya regions.
The flowering of ziziphora populations continues for more than a month. The ziziphora flower produces 0.15–0.20 mg of nectar with a high sugar content of 40–45%. The honey productivity of ziziphora is 30-35 kg/ha.
Ziziphora honey
Bees collect honey from ziziphora mixed with nectar from other honey plants, often small-flowered oregano, which forms joint thickets and blooms simultaneously with ziziphora. Ziziphora honey is very aromatic, tasty, beautiful brownish-amber in color, and healing.
Honey plant Ziziphora pamiralai
Ziziphora Pamir-Alai (kiyik ut) is a high-mountain species of ziziphora, grows only in high-mountain juniper forests, is a perennial, multi-stemmed herb 20-30 cm high. Ziziphora Pamir-Alai blooms from the end of June to July, and is actively visited by bees during the honey flow to collect nectar. The honey obtained is aromatic and of excellent quality honey.
Honey plant ziziphora in folk medicine
The leaves and inflorescences of ziziphora contain essential oil, which includes pulegone, menthol, alcohols, and phytoncides have also been found.
It has been established that ziziphorus oil has an analgesic effect. A decoction from the above-ground part of the plant is used for compresses and aromatic baths.
In Siberian folk medicine, an aqueous infusion of the herb is used as a sedative for the heart, as well as for scrofula and colds. Externally - for rheumatism and toothache.
