Review: Floral resources diversity and vegetation types important for honeybees in Ethiopia

Abstract. Addi A, Bareke T. 2019. Review: Floral resources diversity and vegetation types important for honeybees in Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 64-68. The high biodiversity of Ethiopia is attributed to its wide range of altitude and great geo-morphological diversity. This has resulted in the existence of a high diversity of floral resources of which majority of them are visited by honeybees. This paper aimed to review existing studies on bee floral resources in Ethiopia to understand the types of bee plants, floral diversity, flowering period and food source offered by the plants. Over 1500 species of indigenous and exotic plants belonging to 105 bee plant families have been identified. The growth form of bee forage comprises 41.6% herb, 28.7% shrubs, 21.7% trees, and 8% climbers. The majority of bee plant species flower from September to November and April to May, resulting in two major honey flow periods in the country. From this information, Ethiopia has rich bee forage diversity across different vegetation types, however, further collection and documentation of bee flora are required in unaddressed areas of the country. Thus in situ conservation by ecological restoration, and raising and planting of seedlings of bee forages should be promoted for sustainable honey production.