Intraannual variations in the pollinic spectrum of honey from the lower valley of the River Chubut (Patagonia, Argentina)
Abstract
Thirty honey samples from the lower valley of the River Chubut, obtained by successive harvests in five apiaries overtwo consecutive apicultural periods (between 1997 and 2000) were analysed. Three hives per apiary were selected, fromwhich three successive harvests were obtained at the end of the following periods: initial (September 1st-December 20th),middle (December 20th-January 30th) and final (January 30th-March 15th). Pollen types were identified by comparisonwith a reference collection. Both reference pollen and sample pollen were subjected to acetolysis. A total of fifty entomophilouspollen types were identified: thirty-six, thirty-five and thirty-seven in initial, middle and final periods,respectively. The most abundant pollen was similar over the whole season, due to the long flowering periods of the taxaproducing dominant and secondary pollen. Tamarix gallica and Medicago sativa were main sources of nectar duringthe entire production period. Significant differences (P<0.001) in pollen content were detected when honey fromthe three production periods was compared. Most unifloral honeys were produced in Spring. In this season, the majorcontribution was recorded from the southern district of the Monte. Anemophilous pollen was present in all the samples.The number of pollen grains per gram of honey was less than 10,000 in the three periods considered.Downloads
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.