Bees and Plants on the Cliff Top

摘要

Jeremy Wells looks for information on coastal plants useful to bees, and for advice on keeping bees close to the sea. This is a big question, and it gives rise to a number of minor ones. Are we speaking only of Devon, which has north and south-facingcoastlines, each possessing a huge variety of maritime habitats? The differing geologies of the north and south coastlines also result in varying topography and a vast range of plant life. Consequently any reply short of a survey of the whole South WestPeninsula is going to be confined to observations over a limited region. But that, in the end, is what would make most sense. Marine habitats in the British Isles range across salt marshes, boulder-and-shingle shorelines, basalt rock stacks and estuaries backed by shifting sand dunes. If advice about keeping bees by the sea is to have any value, it has to relate to localised habitats.