Acanthaceae Anisacanthus brasiliensis m Amaranthaceae Alternanthera type m S m I m I I I S m m I S I m Gomphrena m Anacardiaceae Lithraea m m m Schinus m m I I m m m Arecaceae Syagrus coronata m m m m m m m m m m m m m m Asteraceae Elephantopus type m m m m m Eupatorium type m S m m m m m m m m m m m Gochnatia polymorfa m Vernonia type m m m I m m m I m m m m m m m Bombacaceae Ceiba erianthos m Boraginaceae Cordia m Heliotropium m m m m m m m m m m m Cactaceae Pilosocereus m Caesalpiniaceae Camptosema m Chamaecrista nictitans m m m Chamaecrista ramosa m m m Chamaecrista swainsonii I m Copaifera I m Copaifera martii m m I I m m m m Senna type m I m m I I m m m m I I m Tamarindus indica m
Pollen types
Honey samples
Mar May Aug Sep Oct Jan
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII
Cecropiaceae Cecropia m m m m m Commelinaceae Commelina erecta m Convolvulaceae Evolvulus m m Jacquemontia m Merremia m Cyperaceae Scleria m m m m m Euphorbiaceae Alchornea m Croton type m m m m m m Ricinus communis m m Fabaceae Aeschynomene martii m m m m m Erytrina m Machaerium m m m m m m m m Rhynchosia m m m m Zornia sericea m m Lamiaceae Hyptis type m m m I m I S S S S I S I I m Salvia type m I m m I I m I I m I m m I S I m Malvaceae Herissantia tiubae m m Meliaceae Trichilia hirta m Mimosaceae Acacia m m Inga m Leucaena leucocephala m Mimosa arenosa I S I S S I D D I D S S D m I S m Mimosa quadrivalvis m m m m m m m m m m I m m m
Table II. Continued.
Pollen types
Honey samples
Mar May Aug Sep Oct Jan
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII
Mimosaceae Mimosa sensitiva m m m D S S m I S I I m I I S S m Mimosa tenuiflora I m m m I m m m m m m m m m D Mimosa ursina m m m m m m Piptadenia moniliformis S m m m Plathymenia reticulata I m Prosopis juliflora m Myrtaceae Eucalyptus m Eugenia I m m m m Myrcia type S S m m Psidium type I m m Phytolaccaceae Microtea m m Poaceae Poaceae type m m m m m m Polygalaceae Polygala m Rhamnaceae Ziziphus joazeiro S m m m m m m m Rubiaceae Borreria verticillata S m m I m I m S I m I I I I m m Chomelia m Diodia radula m m m m m m Mitracarpus hirtus m m I I m m m I I m m I m m Mitracarpus salzmannianus m I m m m m m m I m m m m m m Richardia m m m m m m m m m m Sapindaceae Cardiospermum m m m m Serjania m m m m m m Scrophulariaceae Angelonia type m m m m m
Pollen types
Honey samples
Mar May Aug Sep Oct Jan
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII
Sterculiaceae Helicteres velutina m Melochia type m m m m Waltheria rotundifolia m m m m m m m m Tiliaceae Luehea m m Verbenaceae m Lippia m m m m
DISCUSSION
The relationship between climatic factors, availability of bee species and honey has been observed in other regions with similar environmental characteristics to Nova Soure (Carvalho & Marchini, 1999; Basílio & Romero, 2002; Andrada & Tellería, 2002). Moreover, Battesti and Goeury (1992) had verified that climatic conditions influence the melliferous and poliniferous potential of the local flora.
The pollen spectrum of the honeys from Nova Soure presented pollen types of several typical species of caatinga’s flora, some endemic, as was the case of Caesalpiniaceae, Chamaecrista nictitans (L.) Moench, C. ramosa (Vogel) H.S.Irwin & Barneby, C. swainsonii (Benth.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby (endemic), and Copaifera martii Hayne; Fabaceae, Aeschynomene martii Benth. and Zornia sericea Moric.; Malvaceae, Herissantia tiubae (K.Schum.) Brizicky (endemic); Mimosaceae, Mimosa arenosa (Willd.) Poir, M. quadrivalvis L., M. sensitiva L., M. tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir, M. ursina Mart., Pityrocarpa moniliformis (Benth.) Luckow & Jobson (= Piptadenia moniliformis Benth.), and Plathymenia reticulata Benth.; and Rhamnaceae, Ziziphus joazeiro Mart. (endemic) (Giulietti, 2002; Sampaio, 2002). The presence of these pollen types related to those species points botanical origin of the honey to caatinga’s flora.
It was observed that the taxa of the Mimosaceae family had great importance for beekeeping in Nova Soure, not only in the number of pollen types but also as the single family with predominant pollen. The same importance of this family was observed in the pollen spectrum of honey from other regions of Bahia (Barth, 1970a, 1971; Moreti et al., 2000; Santos & Santos, 2003, Almeida et al., 2005; Sodré et al., 2007).
The genus Mimosa participated to an outstanding degree in the pollen spectrum, and its pollen types were the only predominant pollen; appearing as secondary pollen, important minor pollen and minor pollen. In the six honey samples with predominant pollen, Mimosa arenosa prevailed in four (48.4% to 73.8%); the other samples were made of Mimosa sensitiva (80.2%) and Mimosa tenuiflora (83.6%). The species related to these types, according to Queiroz (2009), are common in degraded environments.
Although these samples with predominant pollen suggest a unifloral origin (Louveaux et al., 1978), it is important to emphasise that little is known about the floral biology of Mimosa species represented in the pollen spectrum, their real
honey (Barth, 1989). For these reasons, those honey samples were not considered as unifloral honeys.
As secondary pollen, Mimosa arenosa was present in four samples; Mimosa sensitiva, present in five samples as secondary pollen. The other secondary pollen type, which belongs to the Mimosaceae, was Piptadenia moniliformis in honey sample III. According to Freitas and Silva (2006), Pityrocarpa moniliformis (= Piptadenia moniliformis) offers pollen and nectar as floral resources.
The pollen type Mimosa ursina was registered for the first time in the pollen spectrum of honey from the caatinga. According to Lima et al. (2008) Mimosa ursina has pollen grains in dyads and monads, an unusual feature for the Mimosa genus, which may have prevented its identification in previous works. Another pollen type which has also not been recorded in other pollen spectrum of honey from the Caatinga is Mimosa quadrivalvis despite being mentioned as a species of beekeeping interest in the semiarid climate (Santos et al., 2006), having contributed in the honey of Nova Soure as important minor pollen and minor pollen (Table II).
The fact is that the Mimosaceae family stands out from honey produced in other regions of Bahia. Barth (1970a) found pollen type Mimosa scabrella predominant in two honey samples from Bahia. Moreti et al. (2000) highlighted Mimosa verrucosa and Mimosa scabrella as predominant types in honey samples from some municipalities of Recôncavo Baiano. In honey samples from the northern coast of Bahia, Sodré et al. (2003) showed that Mimosa scabrella and Mimosa verrucosa were the most frequent pollen types in the samples analysed.
The pollen type Mimosa arenosa, quite representative in this work, can refer to pollen types of Mimosa arenosa (Willd.) Poir. e Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth. that are indistinguishable by their pollen grains (Lima et al., 2008). Pollen types belonging to this group were found by Barth (1970a), who reported the occurrence of Mimosa caesalpiniifolia as the predominant pollen in a honey sample in the municipality of Castro Alves (Bahia), and by Santos and Santos (2003), who found Mimosa arenosa the as predominant and secondary pollen for honey from the microregion of Paraguassu (Bahia).
The pollen types belonging to the family Asteraceae had low representation in the honey pollen spectrum from Nova Soure, both in the number of pollen types and number of pollen grains per sample, appearing in the pollen spectrum as
important minor pollen and minor pollen. Only in honey sample III did Vernonia type participate as secondary pollen, the most frequent among the honey samples. Almeida et al. (2005) also documented the presence of Asteraceae pollen types in honeys from same research area. Although the Asteraceae family is one of the richest in number of species and the most visited by social bees in different regions (Andrada & Tellería, 2002; Bhusari et al., 2005; Fagúndez & Caccavari, 2006), it did not have a significant contribution to honey production in Nova Soure.
The similarity between the samples studied can be observed through the correspondence analysis that did not detect a clear pattern of differentiation among samples (Figure 5), suggesting that they are practically homogeneous, and the few differences observed are explained mainly by random sampling error (Figure 4). The only samples that show some differentiation (I, II, VIII and XV) were based on pollen types represented only as minor pollen, some of which were recorded only once in the pollen spectrum (Table II). Minor and trace pollen, due to its extremely low numbers, should be considered carefully before any assessment is made of their presence in honey sample (Lieux, 1978).
These pollen classes cannot be considered a good character to support the separation of the samples because their occurrence in the pollen spectrum is normally considered accidental and some species associated with these pollen types are useful only to identify the honey’s geographical origin. The pollen composition of the majority of the remaining samples is quite homogeneous and corresponds to a set with many pollen types in common. The small differences within these groups of samples can be completely explained by the random variation of sampling nature.
Apis mellifera utilizes a diversity of resources available in the Caatinga vegetation from Nova Soure, with 73 pollen types belonging to 30 families, 64 genera and 30 species identified in the pollen spectrum. Pollen types Lamiaceae (Salvia type) and Mimosaceae (Mimosa arenosa and Mimosa sensitiva) were present in all honey samples. Mimosaceae was the most important family to beekeeping activity in study area, as in richness pollen types, as the only to have predominant pollen.
In Nova Soure, plant resources to production of honey by Apis mellifera are represented by great contribution of endemic flora, mainly species of Mimosa genus, whose pollen types are predominant in some samples.
The correspondence analysis showed a similarity among the honey samples based on pollen composition, with the few differences observed explained mainly by random sampling error.
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