Identification of plant with beekeeping potential from beehive monitoring systems in the Santa Catarina state, Brazil

Abstract

The characterization of plant species with beekeeping potential, which are present in beekeeping production systems, can bring many advantages. Among the benefits, the choice of the beehives implantation place according to the availability of floral resources in the agroecosystems, allowing to increase the productivity and the quality of honeys and other products from the bees, are highlighted. In this sense, the aim of this work was to collect flowering plant species, which were visited by bees close to beehive monitoring systems, in six agroecological zones of the Santa Catarina state, Brazil. The taxonomic and geographical identification of these species were also carried out. For each sample, its location was registered in order to estimate the route distance taken by the bees, since the location of the hive was fixed. Of the 157 identified samples, 81 species and 68 genera were found in 33 families, with Asteraceae and Fabaceae being predominant. For Asteraceae, the most reported genera were Baccharis, Tithonia, Senecio, and Sphagneticola, while for Fabaceae, the most reported genus was Trifolium. Species such as Sphagneticola trilobata (Asteraceae), Trifolium repens, T. pratense, Cajanus cajan, Vicia sp. (all Fabaceae), Verbena litoralis, Lantana undulata (both Verbenaceae), Raphanus sativus (Brassicaceae), and Clidemia hirta (Melastomataceae) can be considered interesting from an apicultural point of view, as they remained with flowers between the first and last day of sample collection in some regions (~ 60 days). Although the distances between the plants and the beehives have high variability (8 to 1154 m), the distances generally do not exceed 750 m.