This is what I found out about black gum and bitter honey

GREEN COLORED HONEY.
Honey of this color comes in just before White Tupelo Gum blooms. It is about gathered and ripened when the latter is yielding in dead earnest and many of our beekeepers think it is White Tupelo Gum honey. It is Black Gum honey which has the deep green hue or shade of green running thru it, while the White Tupelo has the lemon colored hue. There is some difference also in the flavor of the honey while neither will granulate. The Tupelo Gum has more of a pronounced flavor than does the Black Gum. The latter has a fine body and flavor yet the Gum flavor is not near so pronounced. About one third of the honey produced in our great Coastal Plain region is from Black Gum or a slight blend with some minor honey plant. Dixie Beekeeper WAYCROSS, GA., JULY 1924

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More About Bitter Honey. Ever since the question as to the source of bitter honey came up in the American Bee Journal. 1911, I have observed the matter very closely, and will say it is not the bitterweed in this section that causes the honey to be so bitter. This spring (1912) I put some empty combs on a hive very early, and when the white clover was in bloom I secured a small surplus of honey in those empty combs.
This honey was, as Mr. Russell says on page 183. as bitter as if 50 percent quinine. It was of a light yellow color, and could not have been the bitterweed in this case, for this plant was not yet in bloom. Nor were horehound and the wild grapes, as mentioned in the question on page 212, 1911. But there was a tree in bloom at the time which the bees worked on extensively that is called " black gum." I don't know anything about the black-gum honey, whether it is bitter or not, but as soon as it went out of bloom I noticed the bitter honey stopped at once. Some may say that the bitter honey was stored last fall, and when the flow came on they carried it up into the super; but they didn't, for many persons owning the old box-hives robbed their bees very early so they would get the honey later on in new combs. The honey they took out was stored last fall, and was of good flavor, but in the new combs they got that bitter stuff I have been telling about. George Gunther. Cushman, Ark. American Bee Journal, Nov. 1912
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PRIVET Ligustrum vulgare: Oleaceae. The flowers of privet yield nectar freely and this is readily collected by hive bees. Unfortunately it produces a strong flavoured, bitter honey, thick and dark coloured, which will spoil any other honey with which it is mixed. However, privet in flower is seldom sufficiently abundant for this to occur, and in most districts more a source of good than evil to the beekeeper. PLANTS AND BEEKEEPING by F. N. HOWES. 1945

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In several of the southern states, bitter weed (Helenium tenuifolium) is quite common. The honey is absolutely unpalatable and should never be placed on the market. Even a small quantity of this bitter honey is sufficient to spoil a whole tankful of good honey. There the beekeepers should remove all the good honey from the hive when the bees begin to work on bitterweed and give them empty supers of extracting combs. When the flow is over, if other flows are still to come, the bitter honey can be taken off and the other supers replaced. When the season is over the bitter honey can be given back to the bees for winter stores. No adverse reports have been found from the use of bitter honey for wintering the bees. Report  Iowa. State Apiarist - 1924

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Bitter and Poisonous Honeys.—There are several plants that yield honey of such a disagreeable taste that it is of no value, except to feed back to the bees. The bitterweed, or sneezeweed of the Ozark region, blooms after the close of the clover harvest, and a good crop of white clover honey is frequently spoiled by mixing with the bitter honey. In such a locality, it is important that the bee-keeper be familiar with the time of blooming of such plants, and remove all good honey from the hive before the bees begin to store from them. The author has found this honey to be so bitter as to be absolutely unpalatable. Scholl says of the bitterweed of Texas (Helenium tenuifolium): "Honey yield good in favorable seasons; pollen; honey golden yellow, heavy body but very bitter, as if 50 per cent quinine and some pepper were added. June to October." Productive Bee-keeping: Modern Methods of Production and Marketing of Honey. By Frank Chapman Pellett. 1916

PLB

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