POLLEN STUDY IN RELATION TO BEE PASTURAGE

Abstract

The importance of a full knowledge of bee pasturage is well known to the practical bee-keeper. Almost complete treatises about bee flora exist in all the chief honey producing countries. So far as South India is concerned, the industry is still in its infancy. Except for the records of Ramachandran (1937) and Venkatasubbayya (1938), no detailed informa- tion appears to be available and the present study was undertaken to supple- ment the information provided by them. But the attempt to ascertain plant sources for honey and pollen has in almost all studies reported in India, mainly been confined to the location of flowers actually visited by bees. This method cannot be deemed satis- factory, for it may be that plant sources growing at a long distance away from the apiary are missed. Also the worker's personal prejudices as to the usefulness or otherwise of a particular source may sometimes vitiate the reliability or completeness of the list of plants arrived at. The study of the external morphology of pollen grains has always formed a subject of absorbing interest to botanists. Pope (1925) and Wode- house (1928 and 1935) have studied the morphological features of pollen grains which are characteristic of the several families, the genera and the species of plants. From their observations, it seems possible that such characters as the size and shape of the pollen grains, the number and arrangement of germ pores and furrows, the character of reticulations and of spines, and the texture of the surface can be utilized in ascertaining bee pasturage. The present author is not aware of any work in which the pollen characters have been utilized for ascertaining bee pasturage in India. From the observations made on the pollen carried by the bees, the plants that are visited by them have been located and the seasons and the hours during which such visits are made have also been determined.