Garden Peas, P. sativum, have white to reddish purple flowers that are a good pollen source for honey bees, feeding man and honey bee alike – a lovely addition to your garden.
Cultivated for around 7000 years, this cool season crop grows fruit into a pod. It is self-pollinating and though it is a lowish nectar source for honey bees, it is good on the pollen count and not to be discounted in your bee-food mix with great protein for you and your honey bees. Did you know that peas are actually a fruit, as seeds are developed from a flower, or that dried peas were a staple diet for peasants during the Middle Ages, easy to grow they saved many from starvation? Winston Churchill was quoted as saying: “We lived very simply – but with all the essentials of life well understood and provided for – hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy.” With a high quality protein, peas are an essential for sure!
GARDEN PEA BEE PLANT VALUE N0-1 P0-2
Saving our bees is not just about making less toxic environments for them, but too about focusing on what we feed them. Like us, they need a balanced diet. Pollen and nectar from a diverse choice of flowers; protein from pollen, and carbohydrates, sugars, from nectar. Bee-effective and plant Good Bee Food, for you and your honey bees.
Click here and select your province to find more great plants for honey bees.
Ref: sanbi.org / Beeplants of South Africa, M.F. Johannsmeier