Honeybee Floral Diversity of Gemachis Forest, West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in Gemachis forest from October 2019 to November 2020, which is an important area of biodiversity conservation, tourism attraction and carbon sequestration for modulating climate change. The forest is also very important for honey production and other non-timber forest products. The study was designed with the objective of assessing honey bee floral diversity of the forest. For the inventory of bee forages a transect line were made in three selected altitudinal strata. Honey samples also were obtained from the three agro ecologies of the forest: Arer (high altitude), Chafe kebene (medium altitude) and Sororo (low altitude). The pollen spectrum of the honey was analyzed to determine the botanical and geographical origin of the honey. According to inventory of the honeybee flora, forty-eight (48) bee plant species were identified; belonging to 33 families, of which <i>Fabaceae</i>, <i>Roseaceae</i> and <i>Verbenaceae </i>were the most frequent families in the study area. Among these bee forages 54.1% were shrub 16.6% were trees and 29.1% were herbs. From identified bee forages, <i>Solanium spp</i>, <i>Andropogon abyssinica</i>, <i>Guizotia spp</i> and <i>Hypoestes forskaolii</i> were the most abundant bee flora species in the study area. The pollen analysis of honey revealed that, two types of monofloral honey types were identified in the area which includes <i>Guizotia spp</i> and <i>Eucalyptus globulus</i> accounting for 74.9% and 54.9% pollen frequency respectively. Thus, beekeepers should conserve the forest for sustainable honey production since the forest is endowed with good honeybee plant diversity.