THAI AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH JOURNAL

Volume 38, No. 03, Month SEPTEMBER, Year 2020, Pages -

Diversity and morphology of flower and pollen of bee and stingless bee honey plants in the orchard of ban ang-ed official community forest project (the chaipattana foundation) khlung district, chanthaburi province

Benchawon Chiwapreecha, Rungwit Chijirawong, Chaimongkol Kongpakdee

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The study of diversity and morphology of honey plants’ flower and pollen of bee and stingless bee was carried out at Ban Ang-Ed Official Community Forest (The Chaipattana Foundation), Chanthaburi Province from March 2016 to January 2017. The objectives were to study speciesdiversity, floral and pollen characteristics of bee and stingless bee’s honey plants. A total of 11 families 17 genera and 18 species of honey plants were found. The all season blooming plants were herbaceous weeds, shrubs and shrubby trees including Asystasia gangetica subsp. micrantha, Ageratum conyzoides, Chromolaena odorata, Merremia umbellate, Acacia megaladena var. indo-chinensis, Crotalaria juncea, Mimosa pigra, Saraca declinata, Senna siamea, Syzygium siamense, Aidia wallichiana, Paederia foetida, Citrus aurantifolia, C. japonica, Zollingeria dongnaiensis, Helicteres hirsuta, Congea tomentosa and Ampelocissus martinii. Floral characteristics most attractive to bee and stingless bee were white color and brush form. The eighteen pollen samples which bee and stingless bee collected were of different characters, most of them (61.11%) were small (10-24 μm). Therefore, differences of pollen characteristics could be useful in predicting the plant species that honey and bee pollen were collected. Results also indicated that some weeds and local plants in the orchard can be a food source for bee and stingless bee throughout the year.

Keywords

bee flora, stingless bee, pollen, pollinator

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