Redshank

Value for beekeeping

Redshank is an annual weed with dense pink spikes, often with a dark blotch in the middle of the leaf. Its small flowers have open nectaries; honey bees visit them regularly for nectar and pollen. Nectar secretion depends heavily on soil moisture: it is marked in irrigated fields and along rice paddies and canals, and weak on dry soils.

Flowering

From late June to October, flowering profusely especially on fields after harvest and among irrigated maize and beet.

Honey and pollen

It is not harvested as a separate honey; it goes into autumn mixed honey. The nectar of knotweed species can darken the honey.

Note for the beekeeper

In autumn it is useful for supplying pollen and nectar while winter bees are being reared. As an arable weed it is destroyed with herbicides; it survives in damp field margins.