Autumn olive
A nitrogen-fixing shrub whose fragrant cream-yellow spring flowers give bees good nectar; highly invasive in North America, so avoid planting it near natural areas.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 3-6 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Autumn olive is a shrub native to the region stretching from the Himalayas to China, Korea and Japan. Its creamy-yellow, tubular and very fragrant flowers, which open in clusters in the axils of its silvery-scaled leaves, are heavily visited by honey bees. Although the nectar sits inside the tube, the tube is short, so honey bees reach it easily.
Flowering
It flowers for about two weeks between late April and May, as the leaves come out. Coming right after the spring fruit trees, it helps prevent a gap in the forage supply.
Honey and pollen
No separate monofloral honey is known; it contributes to mixed late-spring honeys.
Note for the beekeeper
Because of its abundant fruit, spread by birds, it has become one of the most troublesome invasive shrubs in eastern North America; there are also records of it naturalising in some European countries. Valuable as it is for bees, it should not be planted in natural areas or along forest edges. The native oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia) serves a similar purpose in Turkey.