Water germander
A germander of wet meadows and marsh edges that smells of garlic when crushed; its small pink-purple late-summer flowers give bees moderate nectar.
- Nectar
- Medium
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,1-0,5 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Water germander is a perennial with creeping stems that grows in wet meadows, marshes, lake shores and floodplains from Europe to Anatolia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. When crushed it gives off a distinct smell of garlic. Its small, pink-purple two-lipped flowers in the leaf axils are visited by honey bees and wasps.
Flowering
It flowers from July to September. Because it grows in damp places, it is little affected by summer drought and continues to be a source along wetland margins towards the end of the season.
Honey and pollen
Widespread but scattered, it has no honey of its own; it makes a small contribution to late-summer honeys from wetland margins. Its pollen value is low.
Note for the beekeeper
Because of wetland drainage it has declined in many European countries and is on conservation lists in some of them. In apiaries by lakes and reed beds it is a supplementary source during the late-summer dearth.