St Lucie cherry
A small, fragrant cherry of dry limestone slopes; its white clusters in April-May give bees plenty of nectar and good pollen. Also found in orchards as a cherry rootstock.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 3-10 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
🐝 Add to my apiary
Log in to add it to your apiary.Value for beekeeping
St Lucie cherry is a small tree or large shrub of dry, stony and calcareous slopes from central and southern Europe to Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran; it is widespread in Turkey. The kernel of its stone is used as a spice (mahleb) in buns and biscuits. Its white, strongly scented flowers give plenty of nectar and good-quality pollen.
Flowering
It flowers for about two weeks from late April to mid-May, together with leaf-out; coming after cherry and plum, it extends the spring flow.
Honey and pollen
No separate honey is obtained; its contribution goes into mixed spring honey.
Note for the beekeeper
Because it is very tolerant of drought and poor, calcareous soil, it is worth considering for steppe and slope afforestation and for planting around apiaries. It is used as a rootstock in cherry orchards; if suckers from the rootstock flower, they form an extra source in the orchard. Its leaves and bark are fragrant because of coumarin; this is not a known problem for honey.