23
NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, FEBRUARY 2017
TREES FOR BEES CORNER
Linda Newstrom-Lloyd (Trees for Bees Botanist) and Angus McPherson (Trees for Bees Farm Planting Adviser) STAR PERFORMERS PART 3: FIVE FINGER FOR EARLY SPRING BUILD-UP Trees for Bees has produced a series of fact sheets showcasing the ‘best of the best’ bee plants that will maximise nutrition benefits for your bees. In this issue of the journal, the team explains why five finger is a ‘star performer’. For more information, see www.treesforbeesnz.org.
Male flowers have the classic easy access ‘open dish’ structure, with five petals that spread out to expose five stamens and the anthers loaded with pollen (Figure 2). The tightly aggregated flowers provide convenient landing platforms for bees to manoeuvre from flower to flower when collecting pollen. The abundance of flowers on each tree makes up for the small size of the anthers, so a good quantity of pollen is available per tree. Pollen protein levels are good; for example, our pollen sample had 21% crude protein.
with enough moisture and shelter to generate large trees with plentiful flowers, so it may not be possible to rely on five finger everywhere, particularly if browsing pests are not in control. Pollen Each tree is either male or female because the flowers are unisexual with only one gender- type per tree. Trees with male flowers deliver both pollen and nectar. The numerous flowers are aggregated into dense flowering stalks called compound umbels (Figure 1).
Pseudopanax arboreus five finger whauwhaupaku
puahou houhou parapara tauparapara whau whaupaku whauwhau
Five finger is one of our best star performers because the trees provide abundant pollen and copious, rich nectar very early in the season when few other species are in flower (from June to August). In areas where five finger grows well, particularly in the Central North Island, it can even be used to build up bee colonies in early spring. Beekeeper Tony Lorimer reports that honey bees on five finger can swarm in very early spring in years with profuse flowering. Apiaries need a good number of trees for this rapid build-up, though. Tony says that 200 trees of five finger would be needed as a minimum for 10 hives. In any case, five finger is one of the most important star performer bee plants because it is able to replace gorse for early spring build-up. Five finger’s range is from North Cape to Southland in lowland forests and scrubland from sea level up to 760 m (Marden, Rowan, & Phillips, 2005). But not all areas of New Zealand have the best growing conditions
Figure 1. Male flowers of five finger (Pseudopanax arboreus) aggregated in concentrated flowering stalks on the male tree. Photo: Richard Toft © Trees for Bees NZ.
continued...
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs