The benefits of sow thistle as a melliferous plant

The sow thistle honey plant is an annual or perennial representative of the Aster family, which is considered a malicious weed in agriculture. In beekeeping, it is valued for its good honey productivity. It is also a source of pollen for bee colonies.

The content of the article

  • 1 general description
    • 1.1 Yellow
    • 1.2 Rough
    • 1.3 Garden
    • 1.4 Swamp green
  • 2 Honey productivity and honey quality
  • 3 Useful Properties

general description

This herbaceous plant has an erect, very high stem – from 80 cm to 1,5 meters. The flowers are collected in panicles of the corymbose type, surrounded by a wrapper of small leaves. Seeds with longitudinal ribs.

Four varieties are valuable for the apiary:

  • yellow (field);
  • rough;
  • garden;
  • swampy.

Yellow

The sow thistle of this variety is a perennial with a not very thorny stem, bare at the top. It grows up to two meters in height. Distributed in the Central zone of the Russian Federation, namely, in the forest zone. It takes root well on wet swampy soils.

The leaves of the grass have a jagged prickly edge, adhere tightly to the stem, wrapping it at the base of the cutting. The flower baskets are large, with a characteristic bright yellow color (like a dandelion).

When a leaf or stem is broken, a milky-white juice is released, the unpleasant taste of which repels livestock.

The fruit has the shape of a spindle of brown color with a whitish tuft. It spreads easily over long distances by gusts of wind.

In the European part of our continent, this variety is considered a malicious weed that infests all types of crops, garden and garden plots.

Rough

roughRough (rough) sow thistle variety belongs to annuals. Widely distributed throughout Russia. Homeland – Africa. The plant is unpretentious – it can grow on almost any soil and in any climate, with the exception of the northern regions.

The grass has a tall, hollow stem, sometimes without side branches. In the upper part, the stems are covered with dark fluff. The leaves are elongated, dark or gray-green. Covered with thorns along the edge. The base is sessile, wrapping around the stems.

The pale yellow flowers are collected in baskets, which in turn form umbrellas. Seeds are brown, elongated, with a tuft of whitish down.

Garden

gardenThe garden variety of sow thistle is popularly called the milkman. It is an annual herb with a reddish-brown, straight, branched stem at the top. Grows throughout the European part of the continent, found in the Far East, Asia, Siberia.

The leaves are serrated at the edges, lyre-shaped. They are mainly concentrated in the lower part of the stem – the top of the plant is bare to the very umbrellas. Flowers are yellow, collected in baskets.

The grass is readily eaten by livestock. And young leaves after soaking in a saline solution (to get rid of bitterness) are used by housewives for preparing first courses, salads. The plant is prized in folk medicine.

 

 

 

Swamp green

This perennial variety is endangered. Occurs in Europe and Asia along water bodies, in damp spruce forests, alder forests. Including, it grows in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Altai, the Caucasus.

The grass has a very high stem, covered in the upper part with glandular hairs. Leaves are sessile, with characteristic ears at the base, dissected along the edges.

boggy

Inflorescences are formed from 8-10 small baskets. The flowers are yellow. Seeds are also yellow, elongated, with a tuft of fine hairs.

The variety is protected by the Red Book of the Novgorod and Tver regions!

Honey productivity and honey quality

The flowering of all the listed varieties occurs in the second half of summer and early September, which makes thistle a valuable honey plant, which provides the bee colonies with late support bribes.

Sow thistle is a honey plant with a sufficiently long period of active flowering – from 35 to 45 days. Its inflorescences are always open in the morning. But in the evening, bees almost do not carry nectar and pollen from them.

Monofloral honey can be obtained by placing an apiary near solid thickets of grass. Sow thistle as a melliferous plant provides honey collection in the range of 60-120 kilograms per hectare.

Pumped honey of a light yellow hue, with good transparency, with a delicate herbaceous aroma and harmonious taste.

Does not crystallize for a long time! For this reason, it can be used as winter food for bees, and not pumped out of the honeycomb.

Useful Properties

Honey obtained from sow thistle is used as:

  • tonic for colds, bronchitis;
  • a healing and disinfectant component for the healing of wounds, pustules on the skin;
  • vitamin supplement that improves metabolic processes in the body;
  • cosmetic product for wraps, masks.

It is used with caution in case of individual intolerance to any bee products!

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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