Celandine – its honey productivity and value for apiaries

The celandine honey plant from the poppy family, despite its wide distribution in the temperate climatic zone of Eurasia, provides apiaries with a small amount of honey. This herb is valued to a greater extent due to its pronounced antifungal and bactericidal properties.

The content of the article

  • 1 Distribution
    • 1.1 Description
  • 2 Importance for apiaries and traditional medicine
  • 3 Honey productivity
  • 4 Useful Properties

Distribution

In biology, two types of celandine are distinguished:

  • large – it is he who is most often found in the vastness of our continent from Europe to Japan itself;
  • и asian look with a limited range in East Asia.

These are medicinal herbs, the juice of which contains toxic substances that are dangerous to humans – characteristic burns may appear on open areas of the body that are not washed in time with soap.

In Russia, the grass was often called “warthog” because of its ability to remove these unpleasant growths. The sap of the plant caused a burn at the site of the disease, the warts dried out, and the skin was cleansed.

The “warthog” grows in abandoned areas, near outbuildings, preferring shaded areas at the very edge of the foundation or fence. If not sprinkled, it spreads quickly enough, mastering unoccupied territories.

Description

Celandine is a low plant, rarely reaching a height of 60-100 centimeters. Its stem is rounded, with strong branching in the upper part, when broken, it secretes “milk” – a poisonous white juice. Leaves are ovoid with a sharp point in the upper part, collected in rosettes of several pieces.

appearance

The flowers are bright yellow, consisting of four petals, and grouped in loose umbrellas. Blossom from May to August, depending on the region. The grass is distinguished by long flowering.

At the end of the season, in place of the flowers, elongated cylindrical capsules are formed, bearing many small seeds.

Importance for apiaries and traditional medicine

This honey plant is extremely valued both in folk medicine and in beekeeping due to its medicinal properties.

Its shoots are harvested together with loose flowers, drying the green mass in bunches under awnings. Dark brown roots are also used.

You can get acquainted with the use of the plant in beekeeping practice here:

Features of using celandine for the treatment of bees (folk recipes)

It is practiced sprinkling sushi in the spring with a light honey-celandine infusion. This is how the prevention of fungal diseases in honey bees is carried out.

Although celandine is poisonous, it does not harm bees. Beekeepers note the positive effect of this folk remedy for foul infections and ascospherosis (details in the article above).

Honey productivity

The biological description of a large (European) variety of celandine indicates that it produces more pollen than nectar. Bees on its flowers can be seen in the early morning – from about six to eight o’clock. Of course, individual flying individuals work, there is no particular influx of insects.

productivity

Celandine melliferous plant, providing a very modest bribe of 8 to 10 kilograms of honey per hectare (each flower releases only 0,2 mg of sugar per day). Such volumes have no commercial value.

It should also be borne in mind that this plant is not specially sown in large areas – bees are distracted less often by individual herbaceous bushes of celandine than by dense tracts of other seasonal melliferous plants.

Useful Properties

It is not possible to judge the beneficial properties of celandine honey. Actually, this sort does not exist in nature. And the plant itself is not even included in thematic directories (there are only sporadic discussions on beekeeping forums).

Based on their practice, the team. can confirm that small celandine thickets of bees really do not favor their attention. Especially if other honey plants richer in bribes have blossomed nearby.

Of the useful characteristics of herbs valuable to humans, it can be noted:

  • diuretic, choleretic, laxative and antispasmodic properties;
  • the plant is able to inhibit the development of pathogens of cutaneous tuberculosis and fungi;
  • its use helps to fight some tumor processes (it should not be forgotten that the herb is poisonous, and it should be taken inside with great care!).

Outwardly, the “warthog” is used for baths (4 tablespoons of crushed raw materials without roots are boiled in 1,5 liters of water, infused for 7-8 hours).

Warts and calluses are removed with a special homemade ointment (a tablespoon of plant juice is taken for 4 tablespoons of pharmacy petroleum jelly, then carbolic acid is injected at the tip of a knife – everything is thoroughly whipped).

As for the use of decoctions and other recipes in the apiary, an exceptionally positive effect is observed: egg-laying improves, bee colonies become more active in the summer, causative agents of nosematosis, ascospherosis, and rotten infections are inhibited (according to reviews, the number of Varroa mites also decreases).

Note: in the summer, it is not recommended to spray the hives with celandine solutions and decoctions, since in this case, substances poisonous to humans can get into marketable honey!

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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