Use of native New Zealand plants by honey bees (Apis mellifera L.): A review

Abstract

A review of the literature indicated that honey bees collect pollen or nectar from 224 native plant taxa including 188 species, 119 genera, and 67 families in New Zealand. However, only 12 families contain the majority of honey bee forage sources. Plant taxa providing surplus quantities of honey and taxa with most citations were used to indicate intensity of honey bee use and revealed that only a very small proportion is used intensively. Potential effects on animal species overlapping in resource use with honey bees in the few specialised plant-pollinator relationships in New Zealand are discussed as well as potential impacts on the native flora. Forage sources used by honey bees are compared with those plants known or suspected to be threatened or rare.

Keywords:

• Apis mellifera
• New Zealand flora
• nectar
• pollen
• surplus honey
• threatened flora
• pollinators
• specialisation