COMPETITION BETWEEN PEAR FLOWERS, FLOWERING WEEDS AND OTHER FRUIT TREES FOR HONEYBEE POLLINATION

Honeybee colonies were placed inside pear orchards containing several dozens of cultivars.
Bee visitation of flowering weed species inside and around the orchard and the same on blooming fruit trees was inspected carefully.
Additional observations were made on flowering weeds and their competing effects to pear trees in bloom for honeybee visits at another places with no honeybee colonies in the orchards.
Surprisingly no weeds in the pear orchards and no blooming fruit trees in the vicinity were effective competitors against pear trees.
Even dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) that is known to be a highly attractive weed plant to honeybees and also sour cherry trees were scarcely visited when flowering pear trees were frequented abundantly.
Accordingly, the effect of competing flowers can be much less important for pear as previously believed.
The reason of this new finding can be the fact that previous statements in literature were primarily based on field impressions instead of on concrete surveys or counting like in present studies.

VII International Symposium on Pear Growing

P. Benedek, I. Béres, J. Nyéki

Taraxacum officinale, Stellaria media, sour cherry

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.475.49