Nectaronous and pollonous plants in forest plantations of the Middle Forest-Steppe of Prydniprovia

Abstract

To provide the beekeeping industry with honey lands it is important to have a significant variety of natural and cultivated raw materials in a particular region. In this regard, promising honey products are artificial and natural forest plantations, which are widespread in the Middle Forest-Steppe of Prydniprovia, due to the significant participation of a wide range of honey plants. We primarily analyzed the participation of nectar- and pollen-bearing plants from the list of tree and shrub species of forest plantations in this area. For this purpose, forest management materials were used, the total area of forest plantations in this area is 251341.3 ha, of which 245209.7 ha (97.56%) are nectar- and pollen-bearing plants. Thus, Robinia pseudoacacia (26406.0 ha, 10.51%) and Tilia cordata (1868.8 ha, 0.74%) are the main raw material species of the forest-forming species, which includes 54 species of woody and shrubby honey plants. They provide the main productive honey harvest from natural honey plants. In addition, other species were found in the plantations (Pinus sylvestris (116592.9 ha, 46.39%), Quercus robur (60049.7 ha, 23.89%), Fraxinus excelsior (7835.5 ha, 3.12%) etc.), which can be sources of medical collection of small amounts of nectar and pollen. Forest plantations with available species of woody, shrubby and herbaceous plant species are valuable as raw materials for beekeeping. As a result of the analysis of the raw material value of forest lands by forest types in the ecological conditions of the Middle Forest-Steppe of Prydniprovia, out of 62 forest types distributed in the study area, 8 most valuable lands were identified. These include fresh hornbeam (32871.8 ha, 13.08%) and maple-linden oak wood (15144.4 ha, 6.03%), hornbeam oak wood (9034.3 ha, 3.71%), dry maple linden (12810.9 ha, 5.10%) and hornbeam (3585.2 ha, 1.43%) oak wood, fresh (2056.4 ha, 0.82%) and moist (1410.4 ha, 0.56%) linden-oak-pine sugrud, moist maple-linden oak wood (714.8 ha, 0.28%). This block of tree and shrub species of forest ecosystems does not take into account the phytodiversity of field protective forest strips of this area, but this complex of species is a promising source of nectar and pollen.