A comparison between plant community composition and botanical species gathered by honey bees in a cultivated landscape of western france

Botanical inventories were performed in a 1.5 km-radius area around an apiary in a cultivated landscape in North-Western France. Palynological analyses were performed on pollen pellets collected from five colonies of the apiary during one year. Species and phenology of field-inventoried plants were analyzed and compared against the taxa identified in the pollen pellets. Foraging area was characterized by a large cultivated landscape with little -variability in cultivated species and broadly-diverse wild species in grasslands, ditches, roadsides, woods, copses and hedgerows. Palynological analyses found numerous wild-plant pollens throughout the year, with woody perennials predominant at the start of the beekeeping season. The pollens from cultivated species appeared from April and were abundant in spots but little diversified. Taken together, the data indicates that maintaining a high richness and diversity of flowering species over the beekeeping season ― which means preserving perennial and natural habitats ― may be crucial to provide honeybee colonies with sufficient pollen resources in rural landscapes.