The sorghums are widely planted as forage crops. They yield pollen in
great abundance and at times honeydew is gathered from this source,
also.
SORREL-TREE, see Sourwood.
SOULARD CRAB APPLE, see Crab Apple.
SOUR-GUM, see Tupelo.
SOUR-TOP, see Blueberry.
SOURWOOD (Oxydendrum arboreum).
The sourwood tree reaches a height of thirty to forty feet and a
diameter of twelve inches, on high lands, but seldom exceeds twenty
feet in height on the low lands. It is a common tree from West Virginia
to north Georgia and west to Arkansas. The white flowers grow in
racemes and appear in July. It is sometimes called sorrel tree, because
of the acidity of its leaves. The wood is soft and is not of much value
except for light fuel.
Sourwood honey ranks high, both in quality and in quantity of yield.
Many people regard it as the finest honey produced in America. It is
light in color, of heavy body, fine flavor and slow to granulate. The
bloom lasts from two to three weeks and comes in mid-summer, when bees
have ample time to build up to maximum strength for the flow. Although
sourwood honey is produced in limited areas in several States, North
Carolina and eastern Tennessee probably contain the finest forests
and remarkable yields are sometimes reported in this region. The crop
from this source seldom fails and it is regarded as one of the most
dependable sources of nectar. A lady beekeeper, writing from North
Carolina, stated in the American Bee Journal that she had never known
it to fail. An average of as high as 75 pounds per colony from sourwood
has been reported and the local demand usually takes it all at prices
above the open market.
SOUTH CAROLINA--Honey Sources of.
Willows, fruit blossoms, including such wild fruits as hawthorne,
huckleberry and blackberry, furnish abundant nectar for early spring.
Tulip-tree, sourwood and clover, persimmon, black-gum and holly are
all good sources of nectar. Cotton may be expected to yield also on
suitable soils. (See also North Carolina and Georgia for a longer list
of plants likely to be of value in this State.)
SOUTH DAKOTA--Honey Sources of.
The best beekeeping territory in South Dakota is in the sweet clover
districts in the southeastern part of the State. In this region large
crops of fine honey are secured.
Maples and willows, dandelions and fruit blossoms start the bees off
in the spring. White clover and alsike both yield well in the eastern
part of the State. Sweet clover is important wherever grown and alfalfa
is valuable in some localities. Heartsease is the principal source of
honey in late fall. There are also many minor sources, such as are
common to the Middle West.
SOUTHERN BUCKTHORN, see Coma.
SOUTHERN CRAB APPLE, see Crab Apple.
SOW THISTLE (Sonchus).
The sow thistles are weeds which are widely distributed from eastern
Canada to Florida and from British Columbia to California. They are
reported as valuable in east Texas, and Richter lists two species as
yielding nectar in California. Probably seldom important.
SPANISH BAYONET, see Yucca.
SPANISH DAGGER, see Yucca.
SPANISH NEEDLE (Bidens).
The Spanish needles, also known as bootjacks, beggar ticks, stick
tights and marigolds, are very widely distributed plants, and are of
interest to the beekeepers from Nova Scotia to California. Most of the
species are weeds growing commonly on low and swampy lands. Not all of
them produce honey in appreciable quantity, and possibly some of them
are not sought by the bees at all. Figure 128 shows =Bidens aristosa=,
which has an attractive yellow flower and is most frequently mentioned
as a source of honey. This is particularly valuable on the lowlands
along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. During the seasons of 1915
and 1919 much honey was gathered from it.
Two species are reported among the honey plants of California by
Richter, =B. frondosa= and =B. pilosa=. The former is one of the most
widely-distributed species and closely resembles the one shown, but
has a wider leaf. =Frondosa= is seldom reported as yielding nectar, and
it is of doubtful value to the beekeeper.
[Illustration: Fig. 127. Western bur marigold.]
Figure 127 shows the western bur-marigold (=B. involucrata=), which
occurs from Illinois and Iowa south to Texas and Louisiana. This is
reported as a good honey plant. This flower has no colored corolla, but
is surrounded by greenish rays. August is the month of flowering with
this species. The Spanish needles are all late bloomers, and where they
occur yield nectar, and add something to the fall honey flow.
[Illustration: Fig. 128. Spanish needle (_Bidens aristosa_).]
SPARKLE-BERRY, see Farkle-Berry.
SPICEWOOD, see Dogwood.
SPIDER PLANT (Cleome spinosa).
The spider plant is a close relative of the Rocky Mountain bee plant
and very similar in habit. The spider plant had quite a boom among
beekeepers of a few years ago. The seed was sold quite generally and
planted in gardens, but as it is of no value except for honey and as an
ornamental, its popularity soon declined and it is seldom mentioned of
late. It secretes nectar abundantly and the bees work upon it freely
just at nightfall, and again in early morning. It is a native of the
tropics and has escaped and run wild in many places from North Carolina
to Arkansas and Louisiana.
Much has been written about the remarkable secretion by this plant and
the excitement it causes among the bees. Under favorable conditions it
is one of the very best of honey plants and, if sufficiently common,
would no doubt be the source of large quantities of surplus honey.
There are reports to the effect that spider plant grows abundantly in
neglected fields in some localities in southeastern Missouri and is
there important. It is said to require a rich soil for best results in
nectar secretion. A single blossom secretes nectar so freely that a bee
often finds a drop larger than it can carry at one load.
SPIKEWEED (Centromadia pungens).
Spikeweed is a common plant in California, where its range is given by
Jepson as follows:
“Abundant on the plains of the lower San Joaquin southward to
southern California and westward to Walnut Creek and Alameda. On the
alkaline plains of the upper San Joaquin this species covers tens of
thousands of acres and often forms thickets four or five feet high.
It is abundant in the low, more or less alkaline plains of Solano
County and forms extensive colonies in summer fields. Extermination
is often accomplished by means of bands of sheep, which leave the
fields perfectly clean and destitute of this spikeweed pest.”--Flora
of Western Middle California.
According to Richter, carloads of honey from spikeweed are shipped
annually from Fresno County, the honey being of amber color, good
quality and quick to granulate. He states that other plants are
replacing spikeweed to such an extent that it is no longer of the
importance which it was in the past.
SPOON-WOOD, see Laurel.
[Illustration: Fig. 129. The bees seek the spring beauty in early
spring.]
SPRING BEAUTY (Claytonia Virginica).
The spring beauty is one of the early spring flowers common in open
woodlands from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Ontario, Saskatchewan
and Alaska and from New England west to Minnesota and Nebraska and
south to Georgia and Arkansas. Appearing so early in spring it is much
sought by the bees at a time when there is little of either nectar or
pollen available. At a later season it would be of such slight value as
to be hardly worthy of notice on the part of the beekeeper. Figure 129
shows a bee on the blossom of a spring beauty.
SPRUCE (Picea abies).
For years past there has been an occasional mention in our beekeeping
literature of spruce honey, or of bees working on spruce. As far as
the writer has been able to ascertain this is true only of the Norway
spruce. Since the Norway spruce is not a native of this country, it is
seldom found in considerable numbers except in the vicinity of cities,
where it is planted freely for ornament. (Fig. 130.)
[Illustration: Fig. 130. The Norway spruce is the source of honeydew.]
It was at the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph that the writer
first saw the bees working on spruce to any extent. It was about June
12, and the bees were humming through these trees in large numbers.
There are hundreds of these trees about the college grounds, and
considerable honeydew seemed to be coming to the college apiary from
this source. Honeydew is seldom desirable, as it is usually of poor
quality and only serves to spoil the quality of good honey. However,
this spruce honeydew seemed to be of rather better quality than is
generally the case with honeydew, and, as it came ahead of the clover
flow, was probably nearly all consumed for brood rearing.
For a time the writer was puzzled to know whether the bees were getting
an exudation of sap from the tree, or were in fact getting honeydew.
They were working on what appeared at first sight to be buds at the
base of the new growth, but which under the microscope proved to be
insects identified as =Physokermes picea=.
SPURGE, see Snow-on-the-Mountain.
SQUASH (Curcurbita maxim), also (C. moschata).
Squashes are widely cultivated for food. There are numerous varieties,
but all are valuable sources of pollen and nectar. They secrete nectar
freely, and where sufficiently abundant, a considerable quantity of
honey is stored.
[Illustration: Fig. 131. Yellow star thistle.]
STAR THISTLE or KNAPWEED (Centaurea). BARNABY’S THISTLE.
There are several species of star thistles or knapweeds widely
distributed. The yellow star thistle (=Centaurea solstitialis=)
(Fig. 131) is an introduced species from Europe that occurs from
Massachusetts and Ontario, west to Iowa. It is also common in parts of
California. It is only from the latter State that it is reported as an
important honey plant. According to C. D. Stuart (American Bee Journal,
page 340, October, 1918), it furnishes from one-third to one-half of
Butte County, California’s honey crop, an average of about sixty tons.
Concerning the plant he writes as follows:
“Star thistle begins to bloom about the first of July and continues
till frost, which usually comes between October 1 and November 1. The
yield of nectar is slow but continuous. If it is stopped by drought
it will start yielding nectar again after a rain. The plant has the
faculty of existing in arid soils for long periods of drought, and
when apparently dried up, it will start to grow and blossom after a
rain. Some cattle growers find that thistle hay can be fed profitably
when cut and dried like other hay, if it is moistened before feeding.
The dampening of the fodder takes the sting out of the leaves and
blossoms.
“Star-thistle honey is heavy-bodied, white, almost cloying in its
sweetness as orange, and has a greenish yellow tinge, like olive
oil. It is considered by large buyers equal in quality to any white
honey in the State, and with the price at two cents a pound more than
light amber of the alfalfa type, and still rising, beemen in northern
California should worry.”
Richter lists Napa-thistle or tocalote (=Centaurea melitensis=) as
yielding light amber honey of good flavor and fair body in Sacramento
County, from May 15 to June 15. It is regarded as a bad weed and is
abundant everywhere in fields and pastures. Like the foregoing, it has
been disseminated with seed grain and grass seed. According to Richter,
it does not yield nectar in southern California. Scholl lists American
knapweed (=Centaurea Americana=) as not important in Texas.
STICKLEAF, see Mentzelia.
STICK-TIGHT, see Spanish Needle.
STINKING CLOVER, see Rocky Mountain Bee Plant.
STINKWEED, see Jackass Clover.
STONECROP (Sedum pulchellum).
Stonecrop is common from Virginia to Arkansas and south to Georgia. It
is abundant in many localities and is reported to be a valuable honey
plant in the South.
STORK’S BILL, see Pin Clover.
STRAWBERRY (Fragaria).
The wild strawberries are seldom sufficiently abundant to be of much
value to the bees, but the cultivated varieties are grown in large
plantations and are the source of both pollen and nectar. They bloom
in early spring, for the most part, although some of the everbearing
varieties continue to blossom through the summer. Strawberries, like
most other fruits are of principal value to stimulate early brood
rearing.
The bees are very important to the strawberry growers, as many
varieties of strawberries are not self-pollinating or are deficient in
stamens. The bees carry the pollen from the staminate blossoms to the
pistils of the incomplete flowers.
STRINGY BARK, see Eucalyptus.
SUGAR GUM, see Eucalyptus.
SWEET CLOVER (Melilotus).
There are probably twenty species of melilotus native to the temperate
regions of Europe and western Asia. Several have been introduced into
America. Of these, two species, the white sweet clover (=Melilotus
alba=) and the yellow sweet clover (=Melilotus officinalis=) are
valuable plants and are widely distributed. The yellow variety blooms
about two weeks earlier than the white and where both are present a
long honey flow may be expected.
[Illustration: Fig. 132. Blossoms of white sweet clover (_Melilotus
alba_).]
Sweet clover reaches the highest development in the secretion of
nectar in the hot, dry summer climate of the plains region between the
Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. In the East, the surplus
secured from this plant has been disappointing, and eastern men insist
that sweet clover is overrated as a honey plant. However, those who
have seen the big flows that are frequent along the Missouri River and
westward are enthusiastic in its praise. In the region about Sioux
City, Iowa, it is grown extensively as a farm crop. In this section
an average of 200 pounds surplus per colony from sweet clover is not
uncommon. On the limestone soils of Alabama and Mississippi it also
yields freely and large yields are reported. In the irrigated regions
of the West it is of great importance and beekeepers who ship sweet
clover honey in carlots are not uncommon.
The quality of the honey is excellent. It is light in color and mild
in flavor, although slightly peppery to the taste. It granulates more
readily than white clover, but is regarded as of number one quality in
the principal markets.