Pollen Foraging by Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera L.) in Greece: Botanical and Geographical Origin

Pollen is very important for honey bee colony development and nutrition. It is also a valuable product for human consumption, considered to have high nutritional value. In this study, we performed melissopalynological analysis of 285 pollen load samples collected from 44 apiaries throughout Greece....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Apicultural Science Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 11 - 23
Main Authors Dimou, Maria, Chrysoula Tananaki, Vasilios Liolios, Andreas Thrasyvoulou
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Pulawy De Gruyter Open 01.12.2014
De Gruyter Poland
Sciendo
Subjects
apiaries
Apis mellifera
Asteraceae
botanical origin
Brassicaceae
Carduus
Cistus
Fabaceae
foraging
geographical origin
Greece
honey bee colonies
honey bees
humans
melissopalynology
nutrition
nutritive value
Papaver rhoeas
pollen
provenance
Rosaceae
statistical analysis
Greece
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Summary:Pollen is very important for honey bee colony development and nutrition. It is also a valuable product for human consumption, considered to have high nutritional value. In this study, we performed melissopalynological analysis of 285 pollen load samples collected from 44 apiaries throughout Greece. The analysis revealed 229 plant taxa represented in total. The abundance of each pollen type varied among the geographical areas from which the samples were collected. We also observed variation among samples collected from the same geographical region. The most frequently found families were Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Rosaceae. The most frequently observed taxa were Brassicaceae, Carduus type, Cistus and Papaver rhoeas. Statistical analysis showed that the geographical classification of pollen samples among northern, central and southern Greece is possible.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/jas-2014-0018
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SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:2299-4831
1643-4439
2299-4831
DOI:10.2478/jas-2014-0018