The leatherwood or black ti-ti (=Cyrilla racemiflora=) is a shrub
with shining leaves and large numbers of small flowers in clusters.
It occurs in swamps from southern Virginia to Florida and west to
Louisiana and Texas. In Alabama and Mississippi it occurs from the
Central Pine Belt to the Coast Plain, in the edges of swamps and along
streams. It is also known as white ti-ti, ironwood and red ti-ti. It
sometimes reaches the height of 20 to 30 feet, becoming a small tree,
though usually it is found as a shrub. The thin bark breaks up into
large scales.
The bloom opens in June and July and is not regarded as a very
dependable source of nectar. The honey is dark, with a mild flavor.
The ti-ti (=Cliftonia monophylla=), sometimes called buckwheat-tree
or ironwood, also known as black ti-ti, occurs in wet, sandy soil and
swamps from South Carolina to Florida and west to Louisiana. It is an
attractive tree, often reaching a height of 30 to 40 feet. This shrub
or tree, as the case may be, often grows in dense thickets called ti-ti
swamps. The flowers are white and fragrant and appear in late February
to April. There are large areas of ti-ti swamp in Georgia, Alabama and
Mississippi, which furnish abundant bee pasture. According to Baldwin,
it yields surplus honey in the extreme northwest portion of west
Florida. He describes the honey as red, strong, and suitable mostly for
baking purposes. (Gleanings, March 15, 1911.)
Ti-ti is of more or less value as a source of nectar in the swampy
districts of all the Southeastern States from South Carolina to
Louisiana. The honey is not of the best quality, nor is the yield
generally heavy.
TOBACCO (Nicotiana tabacum).
The tobacco plant is a coarse annual. It is grown as a field crop
in the South and also in a few northern localities, especially in
Wisconsin and Connecticut. As a honey plant it is probably seldom
important. The fact that the plants are usually cut in advance of the
time when the bloom is at its best, would make it unavailable, for the
most part, as a source of nectar.
“We are in a location where hundreds of acres of tobacco are raised
every year. I have taken bees and placed them near the fields and
they will store some honey from the plant some years. It is very
dark, much like buckwheat in color, strong and very heavy body.
Buckwheat is not my favorite honey, but I can eat it. Tobacco honey I
cannot. It is very slow to granulate, and I have never seen it harden
as other honey will, even when well ripened and two years old.”--W.
K. Rockwell, Bloomfield, Conn. American Bee Journal, page 63, 1919.
“Tobacco yields a heavy flow under certain conditions in Porto
Rico.”--Henry Brenner, in American Bee Journal, page 381, 1916.
“Tobacco in this section has always been raised in the open field
and, when about 4 feet high, each plant has been ‘topped’ and not
allowed to go to seed. * * * It is now being picked in the field
instead of being cut by the old method. The plant is allowed to grow
from 7 to 10 feet high and goes to seed. The leaves are saved by
picking, this work commencing at the bottom, one row of leaves being
gathered at a time, and the top leaves picked last. The plants are
thus allowed to blossom, each one bearing hundreds of flowers, and
they continue to bloom from August 1 till frost. Thus we have thrown
open to our bees hundreds of acres of tobacco, containing myriads of
flowers. The bees swarm on it, some days more than others, and the
honey comes in as fast as during the earlier flows.”--E. H. Shattuck,
Granby, Conn. Gleanings, page 268, 1911.
TOLLON BERRY, see Christmas Berry.
TOOTHACHE-TREE, see Prickly Ash.
TOY-ON BERRY, see Christmas Berry.
TRAILING ARBUTUS, see Arbutus.
TREE HUCKLEBERRY, see Farkle-Berry.
TREE OF HEAVEN, see Varnish Tree.
TREE CLOVER, TREE ALFALFA or TAGASASTE (Cytisus proliferus alba).
The tree alfalfa, or white broom, is grown to some extent in
California. In Australia it is regarded as important, as the following
extract from Rayment (Money in Bees in Australasia), will show:
“This rapid-growing hedge plant is now widely known as a grand honey
yielder. As a wind break for the apiary it is unrivaled. The white
blossoms burst the sheaves early in spring, almost before the winter
has departed. Bees work upon it during a shower, as the drooping
habit of the flowers prevents the nectar washing out with the rain.
The pollen is cadmium in color and the honey very pale and clear,
rather thin and of mild flavor. To make a close hedge it should be
severely cut back. Unfortunately, the sheep and cattle, also the
kangaroos are fond of it and keep it eaten back.”
It is native to the Canary Islands and adjacent regions. As it thrives
in California, it is promising for trial in the warmer parts of America.