Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol. 28, Nov Suppl Issue 2022; Page No.(S325-S330)

DIVERSITY OF BEE FORAGING FLORA AND FLORAL CALENDAR OFCHANDIGARH REGION (U.T.), INDIA DURING WINTER ANDSUMMER SEASON

Sunaina Jaswal, Dalip Kumar and Neelam K. Sharma

Abstract

The study was conducted at Chandigarh during winter and summer seasons to identify existing bee floraand to determine honey flow and dearth period. Visual observations were done to know the presence ofhoney bees and their foraging activities on different plants. Plants were reported as bee foraging specieswhen at least 50% honey bee frequency was observed on them. Results concluded that winter season has 21plant taxa of 11 families and summer has 50 plant taxa of 28 families. The identified flora was furthergrouped into nectar, pollen and both nectar and pollen sources. Results also revealed that winter has 7 andsummer has 16 bee forage plants which provide both pollen and nectar in good quantity to honey bees.Late summer and raining seasons were identified as critical dearth period. Based on the availability of floraand their utility status the bee floral calendar was developed for Chandigarh. The result indicated thatsome parts of Chandigarh has rich bee flora in these seasons. By multiplying those highly preferred beeforage plants equally in all parts of different sub- divisions of Chandigarh, commercial bee keeping couldbe increased in future for economic purposes.