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Old 06-05-2014, 11:40 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Martin Brown Martin Brown is offline
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Default Rhododendron and toxicity to honey via bees???

On 06/05/2014 09:53, Tim Watts wrote:
Hiya,

I want to plant a couple of said plants - but I keep finding articles on
the web that say that honey made by bees visiting many (all?) of the
subtypes of rhododendron end up with toxic (to humans) honey.

Is this crap or is there any truth to it?


There is an element of truth to it. Some flower nectars contain
alkaloids that are bad for humans but harmless to insects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bees_an...ls#Toxic_honey

Some neighbours keep bees and I don't want to do anything unecessarily
adverse.

TIA

Tim


Provided the honey isn't exclusively from rhododendrons then the honey
is unlikely to be significantly affected. The dose makes the poison.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown