Pine honey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006) |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Pine honey is a particular type of honey that the honey bees produce, not on the basis of nectar or pollen, as is the case for other types of honey, but by using the honeydew excreted by an insect, an aphid named Marchalina hellenica, which lives by sucking on the sap of certain pine species, and leaves the honeydew on the trunks of these trees. Pine honey is produced in western (mainly southwestern) Turkey, in a number of Greek islands and in New Zealand.[1]
The pine species on which Marchalina hellenica can be found are the Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia) and, to smaller extent, Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis), Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Stone Pine (Pinus pinea). The insects hide in the cracks and under the scales of the bark of these trees, beneath a white cotton-like wax they secrete.