Pine honey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Languages