Flora apícola em Jequitibá, Mundo Novo - BA

Abstract

This work had purposed to know the flora visited by Apis mellifera L. in the surrounding area of the semidecidual forest fragment in the city Mundo Novo, Bahia, aiming at provide information that may contribute to the proper handling of the apicultural activity, in addition to the development of beekeeping and income generation. The study was developed in the period between May, 2006 and April, 2007, in the city of Mundo Novo, Bahia. Observations and Monthly collections were made in the flowering plants, to verify the presence of bees and to prepare three exsiccates, respectively. An amount of 46 families, 117 genera and 161 species of plants, visited by A. mellifera were identified in the region, and the more wealth families were Asteraceae (13,58%), Mimosaceae (8,02%), Malvaceae (6,17%), Verbenaceae (6,17%), Fabaceae (4,94%), Myrtaceae (4,32%), Caesalpiniaceae (3,70%) e Sterculiaceae (3,70%). To identification the pollen types present in the pollen charges, were made monthly collects, through alvado type collectors, installed in the Longstroth model beehives. Fifty pollen types were found, spread in 22 families and 31 genera. Through the pollen spectrum of the honey samples obtained monthly in the A. mellifera, beehives, were identified an amount of 96 pollen types, spread in 20 plant families, being the pollen type Mimosa pudica (Mimosaceae) classified as the dominant pollen in the most of studied samples. The more representative families in the honey samples were Fabaceae with 15 types (15,63%) and Asteraceae with 14 types (14,58%).