Honey flora of forest plant community

Federal State Budgetary Educational Establishment of Higher Education «Orel State Agrarian University named after N.V. Parakhin», Orel, Russia

^* Corresponding author: nvelkova@yandex.ru

Abstract

The honey flora of the forest plant community is an important forage resource for the development of beekeeping. That’s why it is desirable to assess species composition and total number of honey plants and to determine the honey reserve of the area of the forest community plant. The forest cover of the Orel region is 9.3%, and this cover is distributed on its territory very irregularly. 257 species out of the total number of honey plants in the region are found in the forests. Deciduous forests are dominant in the Orel region including oak, ash, linden, birch and aspen. The results of studies of flowering plants in the forest plant community showed that there is a sufficient number of honey plants in the forest to provide bee families with nectar from spring to late autumn due to the natural flower-nectar conveyor. The assessment of the honey stock of this community shows that the stock equals 4,872 tons from 203 thousand hectares of forest. And bees can sip only about 30% (1,626 tons). It proves that significant honey reserves are concentrated in the forest plant community of the Orel region. The rational use of these reserves will help to solve the problem of reproduction of new bee families of the aboriginal Central Russian breed and to organize a long honey gathering by bees that provide people of the region with honey.