Anemophilous plant pollen in spring specific honeys from the Rzeszów area

Abstract

The present study comprises pollen analyses of 23 samples of spring specific honeys collected from apiaries situated in 12 communes in the Rzeszów area during the 2005-2006 apicultural season. Forty two pollen taxa were identified in the examined material, of which 31 nectariferous and 11 non-nectariferous anemophilous plants. Among the nectariferous plants, the highest pollen frequency was found for Brassicaceae (others) (95.7%), Rubus type (91.3%) and Prunus type (86.9%). The presence of anemophilous pollen grains was recorded in all the samples, with Poaceae reaching the highest frequency (69.8%). The frequency of over 50% was characteristic of Quercus and Rumex, while the lowest frequency (less than 10%) was recorded for Cerealia, Corylus avellana and Humulus lupulus. The highest participation was found for Quercus, whose pollen grains constituted as much as 80% of anemophilous pollen grains in a single sample. The lowest participation (below 3%) was found for Rumex, Pinus and Artemisia. Among all the taxa of pollen grains found in a single sample, Poaceae pollen reached the highest share of anemophilous pollen in a sample of honey from fruit trees (10%), whereas Quercus pollen in one honey from Brassica napus (7.8%) and in one honey from Acer (4.5%). The pollen share of the remaining anemophilous taxa in the examined honeys ranged between 0.2% and 2.9%. The identified anemophilous taxa belong to 10 botanical families. In 19 out of 23 examined samples of honeys, small indicators of honeydew were discovered.