Tobacco
Its long-tubed pink flowers are hard for honey bees to work, and most crops are topped before flowering, so value is limited to seed fields.
- Nectar
- Low
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 1-2,5 m
- Life cycle
- Annual
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The narrow 4-5 cm tube of the tobacco flower holds the nectar deeper than a honey bee's tongue can reach. Bees mostly use nectar that wells up to the mouth of the tube or flowers that bumblebees have pierced from the outside, and they come occasionally for pollen. It is therefore a minor supplementary source.
Flowering
It flowers from July to September, in clusters and over a long period. However, in tobacco fields the flower heads are topped to increase leaf yield; the areas left in flower for bees are usually seed plots.
Honey and pollen
No monofloral honey is produced. The nectar of the genus is known to contain low levels of nicotine; at these levels there are no common records of poisoning in honey bees.
Note for the beekeeper
The real risk is not the plant itself but the heavy insecticide spraying in tobacco fields. In the tobacco-growing areas of the Aegean and Black Sea regions, do not place hives without first finding out the spraying schedule.