Snowberry honey plant, which is a perennial deciduous poisonous bush from the honeysuckle family. It is a late and very productive honey plant, unpretentious in agricultural technology. It is also popularly known under such names as “snowfield” and “wolfberry”.
The content of the article
- 1 Distribution and Description
- 1.1 Shrub varieties
- 2 Significance for agriculture
- 3 Agrotechnics
- 4 Honey productivity and honey quality
Distribution and Description
The snowball is widespread in North America in the wild. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in China, Europe and the European part of Russia, as well as in Ukraine.
The bush can reach one meter and three meters in height. It has numerous smooth thin shoots that form a dense crown. The flexible twigs of the snowfield hardly break under the weight of the snow. The upper leaves are simple, opposite, of a dark green hue, and the lower (basal) leaves are light green.
Small pinkish flowers are grouped in apical, small in size, tassels or spikelets. Bloom alternately. For a long period of flowering, on the branches you can see both flowering buds and already formed fruits nearby. The fruit is an inedible spherical, rather juicy berry of white, red or black color.
“Wolfberries” should not be eaten, as they can cause an attack of severe vomiting, dizziness and weakness!
Shrub varieties
In total, there are fifteen species in this genus. Fourteen of them grow in the wild only in North America, and one species of wild plants can be found in China (the so-called “Chinese snowberry”).
In our area, only a few of them are cultivated as ornamental plantings:
White snowberry (another name for “carpal”) is the most frequently cultivated species. It is a half-meter winter-hardy plant with small pinkish flowers grouped in long dense inflorescences. The berries are of a delicate white color. Leaves are ovoid, small in size, dark green. In culture, this bush is widely used by gardeners for group plantings, the formation of hedges in city parks and borders. It is a good honey plant.
Common or “coralberry” – a large bush with thin shoots. Its leaves are small, dark green. Pinkish flowers are small, located in small dense inflorescences. When ripe, the berries acquire a rich purple-reddish hue, and the leaves change their color to purple in autumn. Best of all tolerates the weather conditions of the middle lane. This species is popular in western Europe.
Western snowberry differs from previous varieties in a light green shade of leaves and bell-shaped racemose white-pink inflorescences. Its berries are white spherical in shape.
Mountain-loving snowfield has dark green oval-shaped pubescent leaves. The flowers are also pink, paired, bell-shaped in structure. The berries are globular white. The plant does not tolerate large frosts.
The rest of the species (Chenault, Henault, Dorenboza, etc.) cultivated in our territories are full-fledged hybrids. They do not tolerate winters well and for this reason are less known in the European flora.
Significance for agriculture
Most often, the bush is used in ornamental gardening and landscaping of urban areas. The snowfield is undemanding to soil and moisture, tolerates urban polluted air well, and can grow in shaded areas.
The shrub is planted, including on crumbling slopes along city roads, as it has dense developed roots that stop soil erosion.
It is valued as a late long-flowering productive honey plant. Often planted by beekeepers near apiaries.
Agrotechnics
The best time to plant is spring and late autumn.
The plant is unpretentious, so you can choose any soil, up to stony and calcareous. Doesn’t need direct sunlight.
Propagated by root shoots, dividing the bush, cuttings or layering. It is not cultivated by seeds, as the plant will develop for a long time and it will not tolerate unfavorable weather conditions!
Planting and care technology:
- Before planting, the soil is cultivated, after which holes are dug. They put up to five kilograms of humus at the bottom, fill it with water and leave it for a day.
- The next day, bushes are planted.
- It is necessary to water the bushes only in drought – in the evenings, two buckets are poured under each root. The plant takes root quickly and grows well.
- In subsequent years, it is recommended to feed the honey plant with a solution of agriculture (50 grams per ten liters of water).
- Everyone needs to carry out sanitary and formative pruning of branches before the start of spring sap flow.
Honey productivity and honey quality
The plant blooms alternately at the end of July – small inflorescences release nectar for about 40 days. Bees willingly visit flowers even during rain, since the nectar release from the bush is practically not subject to temperature fluctuations. Flowering continues until late autumn. Bee colonies collect abundant nectar and pollen throughout the entire period.
Up to 400 kilograms of nectar is allocated from one hectare of plantations (up to 10 milligrams from each flower per day).
Honey from a snowberry has a bright lemon-yellow hue, pleasant aroma and taste.
However, there is no monofloral snowberry variety. All nectar collected from this shrub is mixed in combs with other types of honey (herbs, sunflower nectar, etc.).
