Milk thistle

Value for beekeeping

Milk thistle is easy to recognise by the white marbling on its leaves. The many tubular florets in its large purple heads are heavily visited by honey bees as well as by bumblebees and wild bees. Its nectar value is good, its pollen value moderate.

Flowering

From May to July, especially in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions, it forms dense stands on nitrogen-rich ground such as fallow fields, the surroundings of barns and roadsides. The plant dies after setting seed.

Honey and pollen

It is not harvested as a separate honey; it goes into late-spring and early-summer mixed honey.

Note for the beekeeper

In some regions it is grown on a field scale for its seed; these fields can be a good source for bees in June. In Australia and the Americas it causes problems as an invasive plant; in Turkey and the Mediterranean, where it is native, this is not the case.