In article <[log in to unmask]>, Paul
Conklin <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Wind pollinated plants like willow or aspen trees provide loads of
>wonderful pollen, but no nectar.  They don't particularly "want" bees
>stealing their pollen so they don't do anything special to attract
>them.  Makes willow honey as tough to come by as chicken milk. :^)

This is a popular misconception, even amongst experienced beekeepers.

Willow trees are single sexed, and the ones you spot as having lots of
pollen in them are all males, and indeed they do only give pollen.
However, many species yield nectar from the female trees, and at times
the amount of honey from them can give the bees a nice early boost.

In France you can buy willow honey as a distinct variety.

In spring go and look at a stand of willows and see if you can spot the
females. The males have their normal cathkins (colour depending on
species) which yellow up as they yield their pollen. They are then shed
immediately after flowering.

The females are generally interspersed amongst them, and have
insignificant looking (normally green) cathkins which from a distance
you would think was just a late flowering male or a tree just coming
into leaf. These female cathkins can be very sticky from the nectar
secretion. I have no idea if the stickiness is designed to catch the
male pollen on the wind or to attract bees as supplementary pollinators.

The female cathkins are not shed till maturity and can become quite
large by then, sometimes dropping as green seed heads (still cathkin
shaped) or sometimes opening up to release downy ( more like cotton than
thistles) wind blown seeds.

About one year in three or four around here we can find the nectar from
this source giving the bees enough to get fresh stores capping going in
the nest area, but have never had surplus honey from it as it is just
too early.

--
Murray McGregor