Honeybee gathering poison ivy nectar (from Wikipedia)
One plant not mentioned but one about which we in Michigan (as well as other states) might wonder is poison ivy. While individual sensitivity varies, this wretched vine is notorious for causing a painful rash when touched, due to the allergen urushiol in its sap. Even after a plant has been long dead it is not safe to touch for the urushiol remains. And should one carelessly toss a log with an unnoticed vine still clinging then the urushiol can ride the smoke and cause a rash in the lungs interfering with breathing, possibly fatally so. Imagine our joy to learn that climate change is making it grow faster and more potent. As a final insult, humans are among the very few animals troubled by urushiol, the rest being some other primates and guinea pigs.
Now that our readers are sufficiently horrified, especially those only now learning that the wretched vine even has flowers, we can comfort and reassure by revealing that, for all its evil, poison ivy does not belong on the toxic honey list. Mercifully the urushiol does not appear in its nectar so poison ivy honey is safe to consume. How very fortunate since there is probably some poison ivy contribution to local multifloral honeys. The wretched vine certainly grows on our own property although we do our best to eradicate it.
2014 December 04 at 18:25
Thanks for the post! I’ve read that the Sumac family of plants, including poison ivy, are quite liked by bees, especially since some species bloom very early or very late in the season. I was wondering about poison ivy honey….
2014 December 08 at 11:45
We certainly found it a relief to learn that the honey is safe once we learned that it has flowers from which honeybees will forage.
The main sumac about our place is staghorn sumac, which is supposed to be a major summer source of nectar. We have not often observed the bees on it but that could be a matter of timing. We usually try to provide a patch of buckwheat for the girls and are puzzled when the flowers are ignored only to come by earlier the next day and see them nearly carpeting the patch.
2014 December 05 at 12:47
I remember when I lived on the west coast how people used to fear this “wretched vine”.
2014 December 08 at 11:51
Yikes! How repetitive of us. Where is our thesaurus? “vile creeper”? “contemptible trailing plant”? “$#%@^*@ *%&$!” ?
2014 December 05 at 23:59
Makes me happy I don’t have any poison ivy growing on my property.
2014 December 08 at 11:52
So you do not want us to send you some? 8)
2014 December 08 at 22:09
I’ve been wondering about poison ivy flower since there are plenty of them in this area. Nice to know they won’t give me itchy throat. Now I can continue worrying about Rhododendron flower.
2014 December 09 at 09:49
Ah, yes. In our less bee-aware times we might have planted some of the pretty things. Not now.
The only defense we know is to make sure there is plenty of non-rhododendron forage blooming at the same time.
2017 January 06 at 15:20
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