The moldavian dragonhead honey plant

Moldavian dragonhead is a widespread plant that can be found in Eurasia and North America. Moldavian dragonhead as a honey plant is an excellent plant, at the same time it is a medicinal, essential oil and fodder plant. In many countries, the Moldavian dragonhead is cultivated by farmers, and also beekeepers like to plant the Moldavian dragonhead as a honey plant next to the apiary. In this article, we will consider the Moldavian dragonhead as a honey plant, how it is useful for bees, as well as its benefits to humans. Read to the end, it will be interesting.

 

Content

• What does the melliferous plant dragonhead Moldavian look like
• How the Moldavian dragonhead blooms
• Where does the dragonhead grow - what kind of soil does the dragonhead need
• Dragonhead honey plant or not
• Dragonhead as honey plant or dragonhead honey productivity
• Why else is the honey plant dragonhead important for bees
• Honey plant Turkestan dragonhead
• Honey plant dragonhead as an essential oil plant
• Dragonhead Moldavian honey plant as a medicinal plant

 ...

...

What does the melliferous plant look like Moldavian dragonhead

Moldavian dragonhead honey plant or mother liquor (Latin name Draeocephalum moldavicum L.) has many names, for example: Turkish lemon balm, bruise, Moldavian dragonhead, in France it is called la melisse de turque and Moldavian Balm, in Germany - Melisse de Moldavien, the English name is Moldavian dragonhead.

Moldavian dragonhead honey plant is an annual essential oil plant from the labiaceae family, which reaches a height of 15 - 95 cm, depending on the soil and climate, it has a straight tetrahedral stem, simple opposite leaves, notched leaves along the edges.

How the Moldavian dragonhead blooms

The Moldavian dragonhead honey plant has blue-violet flowers, sometimes there are white flowers, the flowers are collected in half-scutes similar to whorls, with which the stems end.

It is noted that the Moldavian dragonhead honey plant, which has white flowers, produces much more nectar than the Moldavian dragonhead with blue flowers. Therefore, beekeepers themselves can select dragonhead plants as a honey plant, focusing on white flowers, in order to increase the honey supply of the apiary.

The flowering of the Moldavian dragonhead goes from bottom to top along the inflorescence.

When does the Moldavian dragonhead bloom? Moldavian dragonhead blooms in July, August and later. Produces nectar even in September.

Corolla bilabiate blue-violet, rarely white. Corolla length 20-32 mm.

The calyx is almost half as long. Four of the stamens are located under the upper lip of the corolla, two of them are long, somewhat protruding beyond the upper lip, and two are short. The ovary is four-lobed. The column is adjacent to the upper lip. The stigma is located above a pair of long stamens. The nectary encircles the ovary and has a tubercle on the side adjacent to the underside of the corolla. The greatest amount of nectar is released during the period from the opening of the anthers to the full deployment of the stigma lobes.

The upper part of the corolla is greatly expanded and allows the bee to penetrate deep into the flower in search of nectar. The honey bee plunges almost halfway into the expanded part of the corolla, touching the anthers and stigma with its back and wings.

Under favorable weather conditions, nectar is abundantly released and protrudes into the expanded part of the corolla in the form of a light, shiny drop.

In addition to the usual form of the Moldavian dragonhead with blue-violet flowers and a tetrahedral stem, there are other forms.

 

Where does the dragonhead grow - what kind of soil does the dragonhead need

The melliferous dragonhead plant is unpretentious and, as experience shows, grows on almost any soil. But the best for him are dense loamy or sandy chernozems with a significant amount of humus. Light sandy or podzolic soils are less suitable for it.

Podzolic soils are unfavorable for dragonheads in that they quickly swim, compact and form a crust after rain. The dragonhead does well in low, damp, but not wetlands. In culture, it requires careful weeding and loosening of row spacing.

Dragonhead honey plant or not

Many beekeepers have a question, is the dragonhead honey plant or not? This question can be answered that the dragonhead honey plant is very good.

The dragonhead as a honey plant grows in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kazakhstan and other countries.

Dragonhead as honey plant or dragonhead honey productivity

The dragonhead as a honey plant is a wonderful plant; bees willingly visit it throughout the day. Bees collect nectar and pollen from dragonhead flowers.

Dragonhead honey plant honey productivity. What is the honey productivity of the dragonhead? The dragonhead produces a large amount of nectar; in an unfavorable year, it surpasses phacelia in terms of honey productivity. The dragonhead is able to secrete nectar not only in unfavorable years, but also in autumn.

The honey production of the dragonhead may fluctuate depending on weather conditions , soil and plant care. One dragonhead flower produces 2 mg of nectar.

Different studies give different honey productivity of the dragonhead.

The amount of sugar in dragonhead nectar reaches 180 - 200 kg per hectare.

The honey productivity of the dragonhead can reach 350-400 kg of honey from 1 hectare. It is indicated that honey productivity is gradually increasing from the northern regions to the southern ones.

It should be noted that care is important for dragonhead nectar excretion. The dragonhead produces 20-25% more nectar with good care compared to self-seeding.

Dragonhead nectar is transparent, contains a large amount of sugars, and has a light lemon smell.

How long does the dragonhead bloom like a honey plant? The flowering period of the dragonhead as a honey plant is 34-43 days.

What else is the honey plant dragonhead important for bees

For beekeeping, the dragonhead is interesting in that it is able to secrete nectar even in dry years, in such years the period of flowering of the dragonhead is longer. Nevertheless, it reliably releases nectar even in drought, which is increasingly visiting apiaries.

The dragonhead blooms the same number of days after sowing. From sowing seeds to flowering takes about 90 days. Therefore, in areas near the apiary, it can be sown in 2-3 terms and the dragonhead as a honey plant will stably release nectar. The interval between sowing the next batch of seeds is taken 2-3 weeks, in this case, you can extend the honey flow until September. Thus, the dragonhead honey plant will fill the period when there are no honey plants.

For sowing near the apiary, the dragonhead as a honey plant, it is necessary to cultivate the soil well, the seeds are sown to a depth of 1.5-2 cm, at the rate of 5 kg of seeds per 1 hectare. It should be remembered that dragonhead seeds quickly lose their germination capacity, so they must be checked before sowing. Considering that the absence of weeds has a great influence on the honey productivity of the dragonhead, it is advisable to plant it in rows with wide row spacing, so that it is convenient to process it by removing weeds.

Honey plant Turkestan dragonhead

 

Among the lesser-known dragonhead species, the Turkestan dragonhead D. ruprechti L., which grows in Central Asia, is mentioned. The dragonhead is a perennial bush with good winter hardiness, which reaches a height of 50 cm. The flowers of the dragonhead are purple or lilac.

This type of dragonhead is widely used in the USA, where the Turkestan dragonhead is used as a honey plant. According to the research of O. Park (USA), dragonhead nectar contains from 30 to 40% sugar and good quality honey itself. Bees are very willing to visit dragonhead flowers to collect nectar.

This type of dragonhead blooms after clover and blooms for a long time, until cold weather. The dragonhead blooms from July to October. In one place, the dragonhead grows up to 2-3 years or more. It is undemanding to the soil.

Thus, the Turkestan dragonhead honey plant can be introduced into culture as a very winter-hardy and unpretentious perennial plant that has a long period of abundant flowering. The honey plant dragonhead can be sown in areas near apiaries, as well as in empty places. Experiments were carried out in the USA, in which, at first, small dragonhead seeds were planted to obtain seedlings. When the seedlings reached a height of 12 - 15 cm, they were planted in empty places and near apiaries, after which the dragonhead spread itself, actively occupying empty places, the dragonhead is especially willing to settle in glades and along roads.

 

Honey plant dragonhead as an essential oil plant

The dragonhead is often grown as an essential oil plant, as all parts of the dragonhead contain the essential oil. The maximum amount of which is observed in the stage of full flowering.

Essential oil from dragonhead is a transparent liquid of light yellow color with a lemon smell, contains citral (25-70%). In addition, dragonhead oil contains geraniol (30%), thymol, nerol (7%) and other compounds.

However, since the production of citral from coriander oil linalool, the industrial use of dragonhead has declined. But the dragonhead continues to be a culture that is used in cooking. .

In cooking, dragonhead is used fresh and dried, as a seasoning for flavoring the first and second meat, vegetable and fish dishes, salads, used for pickling tomatoes and cucumbers, preparing compotes, teas, kvass. In the manufacture of canned food, dragonhead is used instead of lemon balm, for the preparation of spicy mixtures, replacing allspice and black pepper in them. In herbal mixtures, dragonhead goes well with thyme, lovage and thyme.

Moldavian dragonhead honey plant as a medicinal plant

Many species of dragonhead are medicinal plants, but the Moldavian dragonhead has found the greatest use in folk medicine. Moldavian dragonhead honey plant is a good medicinal plant that has the same properties as lemon balm. The dragonhead is used as a pain reliever, Okokayuschee, anticonvulsant, is used to improve appetite and enhance the activity of the digestive organs.

In folk medicine, dragonhead is used as an infusion or compress.