Plant ID please?

[drumgerry]

This tree seems to be everywhere in Speyside including my garden. Even in the rain today there were bees working it and it was giving off a heady aroma of nectar.

Any ideas?

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/09/qe9y8y8y.jpg

[gavin]

Bird cherry - Prunus padus. Flowers a little later than your average gean, Prunus avium. We were discussing it today at the wee pollen get together in Dundee.

[drumgerry]

Is it really Gavin? This has clusters of flowers in spikes (the photo doesn't show these so well although there's one not bad one at the middle right edge pointing up). And not like gean trees which has to my mind the classic fruit flowers which don't seem to be grouped together in little bunches. Can you tell I don't really know what I'm talking about here?! :)

[drumgerry]

Right just Google Image searched for it and you are of course bang on. I have learned something today! :)

[gavin]

Right just Google Image searched for it and you are of course bang on. I have learned something today! :)

Prunus padus is to sycamore as Prunus avium is to Norway maple. Only they don't usually droop and don't have nice umbrellas.

[Little_John]

Excellent photograph ... and I've also learned something new :)

Seeing this picture has also caused me to question: which (typically) gives the highest yield of nectar per acre - flowering trees and shrubs, or wild flowers that the public are currently being encouraged to sow in and around their gardens ? Does anyone know if any kind of comparative study has ever been done ?

Intuitively, my money would be on the trees and shrubs - greater surface area per square metre of 'footprint', as it were ...

LJ

[drumgerry]

Thanks Gavin and LJ.

LJ - I suspect the answer is going to be different depending on your location and the season. Here in Speyside we have times of the year when the answer would be trees/shrubs and others when it would be wildflowers. Just now the gean/cherry/sloe blossom has just finished to be replaced by the bird cherry pictured above and close on it's heels will be the sycamore. However despite their large acreage it would be a very rare year indeed when we'd get any honey from them. Our main midsummer crop will be a mix of white clover and bramble honey. If we're lucky the extracted supers will be filled a few weeks later with a mix of ling heather and rosebay willowherb unless we move the hives to the moors for pure heather honey. I appreciate this scenario isn't commonplace throughout the country and I consider my bees lucky to have access to such a wide variety of forage.

[Trog]

Bird cherry - Prunus padus. Flowers a little later than your average gean, Prunus avium. We were discussing it today at the wee pollen get together in Dundee.

What a coincidence! I saw a couple of these while wandering round the carpark at Oban Hospital this week and guessed they were cherries but didn't know what type. Didn't hear any bees on them but it was beginning to drizzle! Had never seen them before.

[fatshark]

OK … I'll take your Bird cherry and raise you this:

2002

which was absolutely covered with bees in Southern Spain last week. Any ideas?

Walking in the wild flower meadows was an extraordinary experience - the noise of pollinating insects (not just bees) was similar to standing next to a row of hives in a busy apiary.

2003

[drumgerry]

Those leaves look like bay leaves - complete wild guess! Meadow sounds amazing!

[Bridget]

Meadow looks amazing


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[GRIZZLY]

Meadows on Colonsay looked like that last year

[Jon]

Looks a bit like Avocado.

[gavin]

Looks a bit like Avocado.

Well done that man! I wouldn't have known ...

[Jon]

We had half a dozen mature trees on our project site in Mexico

[Bridget]

LJ - I suspect the answer is going to be different depending on your location and the season. Here in Speyside we have times of the year when the answer would be trees/shrubs and others when it would be wildflowers. Just now the gean/cherry/sloe blossom has just finished to be replaced by the bird cherry pictured above and close on it's heels will be the sycamore. However despite their large acreage it would be a very rare year indeed when we'd get any honey from them. Our main midsummer crop will be a mix of white clover and bramble honey. If we're lucky the extracted supers will be filled a few weeks later with a mix of ling heather and rosebay willowherb unless we move the hives to the moors for pure heather honey. I appreciate this scenario isn't commonplace throughout the country and I consider my bees lucky to have access to such a wide variety of forage.[/QUOTE]

Here at the southern end of Speyside my bird cherry has come into flower while I was away. so reckon we must be 2-3 weeks behind you and only 60 miles the difference.


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