North Queensland Flowering Calendars

May

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Flowering Calendar – May

Reproduced from Blake ST and Roff C. 1987. Honey Flora of Queensland 3rd Edition, Department of Primary Industries Queensland, Brisbane. See also additional species of interest below. Additional information provided by Mike James.

Common name	Scientific name	Colour of honey	Importance as honey source	Importance as pollen source	Honey flavour	Honey density	Blake & Roff comments	Members comments
Joyweed	Alternanthera sp.		minor	major			Bees build to swarming strength. This plant together with other weeds flower profusely after the wet season.	Honey has strong unpleasant flavour. In irrigated areas it flowers over a longer period.
Rose sheoak	Allocasuarina torulosa			medium			As for black sheoak.
Streaked rattlepod	Crotalaria mucronata		minor	major			Bees build to swarming strength.
Narrow-leaf (grey) ironbark	Eucalyptus drepanophylla	extra light amber	medium	medium	good	moderate	Erratic producer in Townsville district
White stringybark	Eucalyptus phaeotricha	medium amber	moderate		strong	moderate	Honey froths when heated. Due to insufficient pollen, colonies sometimes dwindle alarmingly.
Long-fruited bloodwood	Eucalyptus polycarpa	medium amber	minor	minor	strong	light		Bees build well and will store honey after storms in November. Flowering affected by wet season.
Blue gum	Eucalyptus tereticornis	light amber	moderate	major	pleasant	moderate	In most seasons bees build well on this tree.	Produces only when flowering is delayed by late cool winter weather.
Phasey bean	Macroptilium lathyroides		minor	major			Bees build to swarming strength.
Weeping tea tree	Melaleuca leucadendra	light amber	medium	medium	strong	light	Flowers regularly.
Broad-leafed tea tree	Melaleuca viridiflora	light amber	medium	major	poor	light	A good source of pollen.	Honey flavour is choice. A good pollen source but needs water to pond over roots on summer days to yield nectar.

Additional Species of Note

By Mike James

Common name	Scientific name	Colour of honey	Importance as honey source	Importance as pollen source	Honey flavour	Honey density	Members comments
Wattles	Acacia sp.		nil	minor			Bees can collect pollen, but it is considered to have poor protein content.
Coconut palm	Cocos nucifera
Pumpkins	Cucurbita maxima	medium amber	nil to minor	major		light	Bees obtain good supplies of pollen (highest protein levels available to bees) from most pumpkins.
Other cucurbits	Cucurbita sp.						With the exception of pumpkins, cucurbits seem of little benefit to bees, but cucumbers can be useful.
Lemon-scented gum	Corymbia citriodora		minor	medium			Close cousin to southern Spotted gum. It has a long bud growing period and can flower any month of the year.
Narrow-leaf ironbark	Eucalyptus crebra	extra white to light amber	minor to major	Medium to major	choice	heavy	Heavy but erratic producer, about one year in five.
Gum-topped bloodwood	Corymbia dichromophloia		minor to medium	major
Narrow-leaf (grey) ironbark	Eucalyptus drepanophylla	extra light amber	medium	medium	good	moderate	Erratic producer in the Townsville district.
Gum-topped box	Eucalyptus moluccana	white to medium amber	major	medium	pleasant, unusual flavour	moderate	Honey ferments and froths unless well ripened. Candies rapidly. Produces heavily about one in three years.
Normanton box	Eucalyptus normantonensis	light amber	medium	minor			Most responsive to ground moisture. Bees can build to swarming strength when pollen is collected from another source.
Grevillea	Grevillea sp.; hybrids esp. \'93Robyn Gordon\'94	amber	minor	nil			Grevilleas are often planted to attract nectar eating birds but of no major benefit to bees.
Soapy tea-tree	Melaleuca dealbata	medium amber	minor	minor	poor	light	Support species only.
Paper-bark tea-tree	Melaleuca quinquenervia	extra light amber to dark amber	major	major	poor	light	High yielding tree in southern Queensland but production is unreliable north of Rockhampton. Candies readily.
Pigweed	Portulaca bicolor		major				Occurs mainly in headland areas cultivated for irrigated crops.