Flowers that Produce Toxic Honey!

by Bonnie
(Colorado)

I recently learned that foxglove (digitalis) would make the honey harmful by concentrating the amount of digitalis in the evaporated honey.

What other flowers would render the honey harmful?

Hi Bonnie

None that I know of and that includes foxgloves! I hear this from time to time, but always anecdotally I've never seen any credible evidence. I've never heard of anyone who has suffered ill effects from eating 'toxic' honey and I've never even heard of anyone claiming this has happened.

The best I've come up with is a very credible, at least to me, mention of toxic rhododendron honey by Paghat. Just because a plant's leaves, wood or foliage is in some way poisonous does not mean the nectar is also toxic.

These are some plants whose nectar or pollen is in some way harmful to bees, California buckeye (Aesculus spp.), deathcamas (Zigadenus venenosus), locoweed (Astragalus or Oxytropis spp.), laurel (Kalmia sp.), or rhododendron (Rhododendron spp.) should be avoided, if possible, while these plants are in bloom. Damage to colonies from poisonous nectar or pollen may be severe in some years, but of little consequence in others.

Bees forage at many different species of plant at one time, probably as much as 6,000 acres, even if there was a small percentage of 'toxic' nectar in there, the proportion is likely to be so small that it's not worth worrying about.

However in the unlikely event you're planning to put hives in the center of a few hundred acres of something which seems to be a potential problem I would proceed with caution. Otherwise just forget it any enjoy your beekeeping and the honey your bees produce.

The Bee Guy