Hoary willowherb
Small pink-flowered willowherb of streams, ditches and damp places; gives a little late-summer nectar and pollen, far less than rosebay willowherb.
- Nectar
- Low
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0.3-0.8 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Hoary willowherb is a softly hairy perennial herb of stream and canal banks, ditches, seepage slopes and damp corners of gardens. Small, pale pink flowers 5–10 mm across open at the tips of its stems; the stigma has four lobes. It tends strongly towards self-pollination, and because the flowers are small its nectar and pollen contribution for honey bees is low.
Flowering
It flowers from July to September; in damp places flowering continues until the end of summer.
Honey and pollen
It has no honey of its own. It should not be confused with its relative rosebay willowherb, Chamaenerion angustifolium, an important honey plant in northern Europe and Siberia that turns large clearings pink; the beekeeping value of the two is very different.
Note for the beekeeper
It is not worth sowing for beekeeping. As part of the natural vegetation of damp places it makes a small contribution in late summer; its seeds, with their cottony hairs, are easily spread by the wind.