BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The Cherokee rose is found from the Coast Region of the South Atlantic States westward through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to eastern Texas. It occurs also in California. It was in Alabama that the author first heard it mentioned as a source of nectar. Later reports from California indicated that bees sometimes find nectar from this source, though most of the roses yield only pollen. H. B. Parks states that he has observed the bees getting honey from this source, and M. B. Talley,of Victoria, Texas, states that he has observed the bees gathering nectar from it in Mississippi and also at Victoria. It is probably of little importance, unless it be as a source of pollen.
**CHERRY (Prunus cerasus).**
The cultivated cherry is closely related to the plum and is equally attractive to the bees. Both bloom at about the same time. In California the cherry is reported as one of the best of the fruit trees for honey production. In the East it is valued principally for stimulating early brood rearing.
When the weather is warm and bright during its period of bloom a great variety of insects may be found on the blossoms. Bees are seldom strong enough to store surplus from cherry. (See also Wild Cherry.
**CHESTNUT (Castanea dentata).**
The chestnut is an important timber tree from northern New England and Ontario to Michigan and along the mountains to Georgia. It is a tall and slender tree in the forests, but a magnificent spreading shade tree when grown with sufficient room. It sometimes reaches a height of 90 to 100 feet.
As a source of nectar it is probably nowhere important, though it yields pollen in June or July. E, E. Hasty, writing in the American Bee Journal, from Toledo, Ohio, (Sept., 1990), reports that there the bees rocar on chestnut bloom, even when password blooms at the same time.
It is frequently listed as a source of honey, but the author can find no authoritative records of surplus stored from it.
Fig 89. Blood of China-tres.
## CHINABERRY, see Wild China
**CHINA TREE (Melia azedarach).**
The China tree, also known as pride of India, is a native of the Far East, probably coming from China. It has become naturalized in the Southeastern States from the Atlantic Coast to Texas. It is found as far north as Arkansas and Virginia.
H. B. Parks reports that in Texas it is a fairly good honey plant.
Figure 40: The chipupupits.
blooming very early in the season. On account of its early blooming, it is principally valuable to stimulate early brood rearing.
This tree should not be confused with the Wild China, which see.
CHINSE SUMAC, see Varnish Tree.
CHINQUAPIN (Castanena pumila).
The chinquapin is a shrub or small tree common from New Jersey and southern Pennsylvania southward to Missouri and Texas. It is well known to the beekeepers in parts of Alabama, Georgia and north Florida, where it flowers in May. In Arkansas, it is a large tree, reaching a height of fifty feet in some cases.
In some localities beekeepers report good crops of honey from chinquapin, but the quality is inferior. It is dark and strong, with a bitter taste. Some use it for feeding to replace the better grades of honey which may be taken from the bees. In color it looks like New Orleans molasses, and a sample, in the author's collection for several years, shows no tendency to granulation.
CHITTAM, see Buckthorn.
CHOCTAW ROOT, see Dogbane.
CHOKE CHERRY, see Wild Cherry.
CHRISTMAS BERRY, or CALIFORNIA HOLLY (Heteromeles arbuti-folia).
The Christmas berry is known also as toy-on or tollon berry, as well as California holly. It is common along the streams and on the mountain-sides of California, where it flowers in June and July. It has white flowers and the bright red berries ripen in late autumn. The berries, according to C. D. Stuart, are acid and slightly astringent, though not unpleasant. He states that the berries were eaten by the Indians as a kind of salad, and that a wine-red drink is sometimes made from them after an old Spanish-Californian recipe. The plant is much used for Christmas decoration on the Pacific Coast.
According to Richter, the plant is the source of a thick amber honey of decided flavor, which candies with a coarse grain, within two or three months after extraction. He reports surplus from this source in Monte-rey, Colusa and Nevada Counties, California.
Jepson gives the range as "Throughout the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada, and southward to southern and Lower California. Frequent along streams and gulches in the lower hills, and also abundant on stony slopes at middle elevations, especially from Napa to Humboldt Counties.
At Visalia the author heard reports of an average of a case per colony of surplus honey from this source in the mountains.
CITRUS FRUITS, see Oranges, Lemons, Ete.
## Appendix C Clematis
The white chematis is commonly known by the name of virgin's bower, but also has several other local names, such as love vine, traveler's joy and devil's hair. Fig. 42 shows the delicate white blossoms and the leat, and Fig. 43 shows a mass of vines on a roadside fence.
The range of the plant is from Nova Scotia and Ontario west to Lake Winnipeg and Nebraska and south to Louisiana and Florida. It may be expected almost anywhere east of the Mississippi River. It is a slender climbing vine on the borders of woods, roadsides and hedgerows. The blossoms are white and fragrant, blooming in midsummer. It is much sought by the bees, and apparently produces considerable nectar. It is doubtful whether the plant is anywhere sufficiently abundant to make an appreciable difference in the production of the hive.
Richter, in his "Honey Plants of California," reports a related species, the hill chematis, **(Clematis ligusticifolia,** as common in the hilly districts almost throughout California. It is said to produce "a great deal of pollen and probably some honey," but it is not known to produce surplus. Common also in the Rocky Mountains.
## Cleomle, see Rocky Mountain Bee Plant
### Cleomella angustifola
The Cleomella is very similar to the Rocky Mountain bee plant, or cleome. The flowers are small and yellow and the plant does not grow so tall as the cleome.
An Oklahoma beekeeper reports as follows:
"It seems to be a remarkable honey plant. It was in bloom for more than ten weeks during the dry season, and bees worked upon it freely every morning. The blossom is very fragrant, sweet, yellow, and is at the branches. It keeps crowding out a new growth and blooming, forming small purse-shaped seed pods as the blossoms drop. The growth is much like sweet clover or yellow mustard, but forming a larger spreading top. Some plants grow four feet tall and three feet
Figure 42: Blossom and leaf of white chematis.
across and an inch through at the butt. It is an annual, and no stock will eat it."-M. S. Hubbell, Helena, Oka. American Bee Journal, Cleomella is found from Nebraska to Utah and south to Texas.
**CLETHRA, see Pepperbush.**
**CLIMBING MILKWEED, see Bluevine,**
**CLOVER (Trifolium).**
The clovers are by far the most important American honey plants. If we include the closely related alfalfa and sweet clover, they probably are the source of more surplus honey than all the other plants together.
They are to be found in nearly every part of America and yield nectar u more freely than most plants. The quality of clover honey is of the best and in quantity of yield it ranks high, under favorable conditions. If the whole group was to be removed, honey production as a commercial proposition would decline to a very large degree.
Clover seems to yield most heavily in the northern part of its range and gradually declines southward. White clover is the most important of the group. Alsike is quite as valuable where equally abundant. The corolla tubes of red clover are usually too deep for the honeybee to reach the nectar, but occasionally some honey is secured from this source. (See Red Clover). Each of the clovers is considered separately. (See White Clover, Alsike, etc.)
Figure 41: The Christmas Berry, or California body.
the white honey by being mixed in the supers. Narcissus, parsley and prairie clover are prairie plants which attract the bees freely. Wild onion yields some honey. Dandelion and fruit bloom are important for spring brood rearing and cantelopes yield some surplus in the Rock Ford region.
Sunflowers, mentzelia, lupines and loco weeds add something to the sun total brought to the hives. The white clematis is very common along the streams, as are willows. Wild currant is common in the mountain canyons. **Gaura cococinea,** the red gatura or ragged lady, is much sought by the bees for both honey and pollen. Orecocarya is a desert plant which yields surplus, but which is rapidly disappearing through cultivation of the land on which it grows.
## 6.1. Columbo, see Monument Plant.
**COMA (Bumelia Iyeioides).**
Coma is the Mexican name for southern buckthorn **(Bumelia Iyeioides),** which is found from Florida north to Virginia and west to Texas. I* is also known as ironwood. It is a spiny shrub with flowers in dense clusters. In South Texas it is also known as coma and is frequently reported as an important source of honey. It blooms there from October to February and produces nectar freely. At Rio Hondo, in the lower Rio Grande Valley, beekeepers reported to the author that a flow-of six weeks from coma, from September to November, was common, and that swarms issuing as late as December had gathered sufficient honey from this source to carry them through. The honey is said to be light amber in color and
Figure 44. A white clover field in Iowa.
of good quality. The flow varies greatly, depending upon the rains. (See also Gum-elastic.)
##### CONE FLOWER (Rudbeckia)
The cone flowers, also called golden glow, are not often mentioned as honey plants, yet the bees visit then freely and apparently they are the source of some nectar. The plants are widely distributed east of the Missouri River and are probably of limited local importance.
##### CONNECTICUT--Honey Sources of
The clovers, alsike and white clover, occur all over Connecticut and yield nectar freely. Goldenrod and asters are also important. Buckwheat, with raspberry and mikkveeds all yield surplus under favorable conditions.
Passwood, locust maple and cloth are among the valuable trees and shrubs. Fruit bloom, willow, etc., are important in early spring. Some honey from tobacco is reported in Connecticut.
**CORAL BEAN or FRIJOLILLO (Sophora secundiflora).**
The coral bean is a small tree common along the streams of Texas and New Mexico, and southward to the interior of Mexico. The Mexicans call it frijolillo. The beans are said by Coulter to be used by the Indians as an intoxicant. The beans are round and red and as large as small mar
Figure 45: Blossoms of the cotton plant. iU. S. Department of Agriculture.J
bles. They contain a powerful poisonous alkaloid. Some beekeepers have expressed a fear that the honey might be poisonous to the bees, though apparently there is little grounds for such fear. The tree is abundant along the Nueecs River in the shade of larger timber and was yielding nectar very freely at the time of the author's visit to that section on March 10, 1918. There had been a long dearth of nectar and the bees were extremely short of both honey and pollen. The new nectar was coming in in considerable quantity and the honey stored had a peculiar flavor. The tree is particularly abundant in the vicinity of Matagorda Bay.
**CORAL BERRY, see Indian Currant. CORAL SUMAC, see Poisonwood. CORN, see Indian Corn. CORNEL, see Dogwood. CORN-ITCH, see Cow-itch. COTTON (Gossyplum herbaceum).**
Although the cotton plant is found growing wild in many warm countries, in the United States it is known only as a staple field crop. It was
Figure 46: Honey plant regions of Texas.
brought to this country as early as 1621, and has been the most important plant grown on southern plantations since the early development of the country.
The plant thrives in a warm and humid climate, and needs five to six months of warm weather. However, it is grown successfully under semi-arid conditions in parts of Texas and other Southern States. The so-called cotton belt extends from the northwest corner of Texas south to the Rio Grande, and east to the Atlantic seaboard. A limited acracage is grown in California, but, excepting very restricted areas, it is not important outside the territory mentioned. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia are perhaps the most important of the cotton-growing States. The Carolinas, Louisiana and Oklahoma also grow it in large areas.
Honey production reaches its highest development in localities where good nectar-bearing plants are grown in large acreage. Hence we find beckeeping thriving in dairy communities, where alsike and white clover are grown abundantly. We also find the beekeepers prosperous where alfalfa is an important crop. In the Southern States, cotton is the one field crop grown on a sufficient scale to offer ideal conditions for the beekeeper. However, cotton is fickle in its behavior, and cannot always be depended upon to produce nectar, no matter how abundant the crop. In some cotton-growing districts the beekeepers swear by cotton, while in other localities they declare that it is of little value. The character of the soil seems to be a very important factor in the secretion of nectar by this plant. The vigor of the growth and the amount of available plant food in the soil are also important. Reports from different sections indicate that the quality of the honey varies in different sections.
W. D. Null, of Demopolis, Ala, wrote to the author as follows:
"This, you know, was for sixty years the heaviest cotton-growing section in the nation. Bees will not work cotton if they can work anything else, even bitterwood. It yields honey of very poor quality, and never very much, some years none at all. Weather conditions must be just right, and that don't come often. The honey is the same grade as the most honeydews."
In contrast, we find the following report of good honey and abundant yield in American Bee Journal for 1907, page 267:
"Cotton blossoms furnish a great deal of excellent honey, and the theory that it explodes or fermentents is all bosh. It makes an excellent rich honey, oily, and it is not liked so well by some until they get used to it."-Jules Belknap, M. D., Sulphur Springs, Ark.
When the writer made his first trip through Georgia he was much puzzled by the different reports of apparently good observers in different parts of the State. The matter was finally explained by a beekeeper who had lived in different localities, by the variation in behavior of the plant under different conditions. There is perhaps no important honey plant which varies so much, in the quality of its nectar, as does cotton. The poor quality in some places can doubtless be explained by the fact that the flow is not abundant, and is mixed with other low-grade stores. However, honeydew is also sometimes reported from the plant itself.
"Sometimes, during a damp spell, the cotton gets covered with vast numbers of aphis, and the upper side of the leaves will first get gummy and then will even drip a kind of dirty-looking sweet fluid. If there is anything else on hand the bees will not touch it."--W, H, Alder, Callahan County, Texas, page 334, American Bee Journal, 1899.
It is needless to say that this would make a poor product, and it is not improbable that honeydew is sometimes secured from cotton in localities where it seldom yields nectar. The secretion is apparently dependent far more upon soil than upon any other condition. Upon the black, wavy lands of Texas and upon other soils, it reaches its highest development. The boundary of the belt, where cotton yields freely and where it does not, is very marked in Texas. North of the escarpment which runs across Bexar County, Texas, near San Antonio, it is an important source. South of that line few beekeepers report it as dependable. North of this line the soil is black and heavy; south it is sandy. Wherever the writer has found beekeepers on sandy soil, they have reported the yield from cotton as uncertain; while on the heavy soils they report it as fairly constant, with suitable weather conditions. The map shown herewith, Fig 46, roughly outlines the heavy section where honey from cotton is important in Texas. Cotton is grown east, south and, to some extent, west of that line. In east Texas cotton is reported as yielding well on river bottom lands and but little on the hills. In the southern sections, and also in other States, an occasional crop is reported where it does not yield regularly :
"We had a very dry, sulfry spell here the latter part of last August, and up to that time the bees were living from hand to mouth. All at once they began storing from the cotton bloom, though it looked as though cotton was going to die in the fields from drought and heat, yet it yielded until the bees had stored from 30 to 60 pounds per colony."--J, J. Wilder, Cordele, Ga., American Bee Journal, page 141, 1906. On suitable soils it is one of the most dependable sources of nectar :
"The apiarist who has his bees located within range of extensive cotton areas can count on at least an average crop year after year, with more certainty than many of the other numerous honey yielders which we have."--Louis School, page 652, Gleanings, 1912.
"My main sources for surplus are mesquite trees, the cotton fields being the second of importance in the central and northern parts of the State, or throughout the black land region. On sandy or light soil cotton yields very little honey. * * *
"The yield is good, averaging about 73 pounds of bulk comb honey per year. One year it was over 100 pounds. Honey from cotton is very light in color, the comb very white, and of excellent flavor when well ripened. As soon as cool weather sets in this honey fairly draws out in long striags, when handled with a spoon."--Gleansings, page 1313, 1907.
From the above it will be seen that cotton honey is of good quality, at least in some localities Samples said to be from cotton from Georgia, are strong and of rather poor quality, while cotton honey received from Texas is light in color, of mild and rather pleasing flavor. The honey from Cotton granulates very quickly. That produced in the Southeastern States also has the effect of bursting the containers, possibly from the effects of fermentation. The humidity of the atmosphere evidently has a marked effect on the quality of the honey from this plant. The following reports indicate the quality:
"As to the quality of cotton honey, I can say from my own experience, that it varies in color from light amber to almost water white. While 1 do not consider it equal to white clover in flavor, it is superior to password. * * The flow increases toward the last of the season, and if we can get two weeks of nice weather after frost it amounts to a considerable increase in the crop."--J. D. Yancey, Hunt County, Texas. Gleanings, page 162, 1910.
"It did well on our rich bottom land and yielded a fair crop of the finest honey it was ever my pleasure to see. It was so thick that it was almost impossible to extract it, and entirely out of the question to strain it through a single thickness of cheese-cloth. It was light in codon, mild in flavor, and very heavy, and in my opinion superior to any honey ever shipped to this locality, not excepting huijilla. The long drought and consequent absence of all other bloom, enabled us to get a purer cotton honey than we had ever been able to get before. Again, in the late fall, when the weather began to get cool, our cotton took a second growth, soon blooming profusely, and by accident we got also a fair fall crop."--O. Saunders, Trenton, Texas. Page 734, Gleanings, 1910.
One great advantage of the cotton flow is its long continuation. In Texas it begins to bloom in May or June, and the bees work it steadily until late fall, often November. Extra cultivation or fertilization of the soil increases the vigor of the plant and the nectar flow is increased accordingly:
"I can remember when the bees gathered only enough nectar from it to stimulate brood rearing, and now we get from one to three supers of surplus from this source alone. * * On land where we used to make a bale of cotton to 4 or 5 acres, now we make 1 to 2 bales per acre, using high grades of commercial fertilizer and more prolific varieties of the plant. It yields more where it grows best, and of a much longer duration."--J. J. Wilder, Cordele, Ga. Page 237, American Bee Journal, 1911.
Bees get nectar not only from the cotton blossoms, but from extra floral nectaries as well. At times almost entirely, and to gather freely they seem to neglect the blossoms for the extra-flavor nectaries. Some of these are located under the flower and begin to secrete nectar before the blossoms open. Others are located on the under sides of the leaves, and vary from one to three on each leaf. When atmospheric conditions are favorable, these glands secrete abundantly and the nectar gathers in drops. At times it is so abundant that the men cultivating get their clothes saturated with the nectar, from the brushing of the leaves against them. Later in the day the heat of the sun evaporates most of the moisture, leaving the clothing sticky. In hot and dry weather the flow is on in the morning and again in the evening, while in cloudy or damp weather it lasts all day.
When first gathered, the honey is said to be very thin and clear, with a strong and nauseating taste, resembling the taste of the plant itself. As the moisture is evaporated and the nectar ripens in the hive this disagreeable taste is lost to a large extent. During a heavy flow a strong odor is frequently present in the apiary, which can be noticed at some distance from the hives. Scholl compares this odor to that of crushed coton leaves. He reports that at times it becomes so strong as to have a sickening effect on the apiarist, even interfering with his work, on calm days.
The heaviest flows come from rank-growing plants on rich soils, during warm and wet weather. At such times the honey is lighter in color and superior in quality, while the honey stored from plants growing on light soils during dry weather is darker and strong in taste.
Pollen from the cotton plant is white in color, and is produced in abundance from the large bell-shaped flowers. When the bloom first opens it is white, later turning pink.
**COTTON-GUM, see Tupelo. COTTONWOOD, see Aspen. COW-ITCH (Cissues incisa).**
The cow-itch is a climbing vine found from the coast of Florida to western Texas and north to southern Arkansas. In south Texas it is called "yerba del bney," according to Coulter.
Scholl states that it "yields sufficiently to keep the bees out of mischief during a dearth, and giving surplus when abundant." At Buffalo and Palestine, Texas, the author found reports to the effect that cow-itch was a heavy yielded of nectar, bees beginning on it as soon as the basswood bloom closed. It blooms from June till October, with fruit in all stages. The honey was reported to be light amber in color and of good flavor. R. A. Nestor reported that he had secured as high as 35 to 40 pounds of surplus per colony from this source mixed with partridge pea. It is also called corn-itch.
**COWPEA (Vigna sinensis).**
The cowpea is widely cultivated in the warmer regions of the old world and in our own Southern States. It is grown for forage and for green manure. The plant is more closely related to the beans than to the peas.
R. A. Nestor reports that it yields freely in east Texas, and where planted in sufficient acreage yields surplus. The honey is very dark in color, but of mild flavor, according to his report.
The nectar from cowpeas is secreted by extra floral nectaries and beckepers are often mystified because the bees are working at the "joints" instead of on the flowers. Some report that bees gather nectar from the flowers, also.
The following reports indicate the value in different localities:
"There is no finer honey plant than the cowpea, while it lasts, but it blooms only about a week. During this time, if the weather is fair, the bees swarm over the fields from early morin till dewey evc,"--], D. Rowan, Tupelo, Miss. Gleanings, Sept. 15, 1909.