disk flowers on a high receptacle. Common over eastern two-thirds of the United States in old fields and waste places. Black-eyed Susan blooms from June to October. The honey is yellow-amber with a strong flavor not considered very desirable. It is particularly abundant in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
BRAZIL, BRAZIL BRUSH, BRAZIL WOOD (Condalia obovata). This low, densely branched shrub with small yellowish-green flowers forms dense thickets in the Texas chaparral. The shrubs bloom in spring and after every rain. The honey is amber with a good flavor. W. O. Victor of Uvalde sells a brazil blend made from this honey and other desert shrubs which has a pleasant flavor and is popular in spite of its dark color.
BROOMWEED (Gutierrezia texana). A low herb only 1 foot tall with slender, linear leaves, and flat-topped clusters of yellow composite flowers. It occurs from Idaho south to Texas and Arizona where it blooms in the fall. The honey is dark-yellow and strong with a slightly bitter taste. It granulates quickly. In Texas, bees sometimes store as much as 30 pounds per colony. The honey is left with the bees for late brood rearing and wintering.
BUR-CLOVER (Medicago hispida). A low, spreading, annual herb, leaves of 3 leaflets, yellow flowers pea-shaped, and fruits spirally curved and covered with bristles forming a bur. A weed of waste places throughout the United States but particularly common in the southwest. According to Richter it is valuable as an early stimulant in California where some surplus is said to be harvested. In Louisiana it is of little value according to Oertel although it is abundant along the shoulders of the roads.
CATSCLAW (Acacia spp.). Thorny shrubs with twice-compound leaves and either round or elongated clusters of pale-yellowish flowers. The honey is white with a good flavor. Catsclaw blooms in April or May and again in the summer. According to J. D. Beals yields up to 160 pounds are obtained in Texas. It is also an important honey plant in New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California.
CAT’S-EAR, CALIFORNIA DANDELION (Hypochoeris radicata). Perennial herbs with yellow heads, 1½ -inches across, and hairy leaves in basal clusters. A minor honey plant in the west coast states in the summer and the fall. The honey is light amber with a yellow tinge and sometimes darkens fireweed honey.
CENTURY PLANT, MAGUEY (Agave americana). The basal clusters of large leaves produce great clusters of flowers often 40 feet tall which are alive with insects. Century plants bloom only once. They occur only in southern Florida and in the southwest near the Mexican border. The honey is strong and dark with a poor flavor.
CHINESE TALLOW TREE (Sapium sebiferum). A tree up to 40 feet tall with yellow flowers in terminal clusters. It has been extensively planted in eastern Texas along the highways. It blooms for six weeks in May and June. According to L. A. M. Barnette, the average surplus is from 75 to 100 pounds, but he obtained a surplus of 228 pounds per colony in 1948. The honey is light amber with a good flavor and body.
CLOVER, YELLOW HOP (Trifolium procumbens) is reported to yield a yellow honey but it is rarely common enough to give a surplus.
COMPASS PLANT (Silphium laciniatum). On the western plains this giant herb with coarse deeply-cut leaves lifts its great yellow heads of flowers (3 to 5 inches across) ten feet high. Bees often work the flowers but no surplus has been reported.
COTTON (Gossypium hirsutum). One of the leading honey plants in the southern states from the Carolinas to California. Nectar is secreted both by the large flowers and by nectaries on the bracts beneath the flowers and by the leaves. The honey is white to extra light amber and has a good flavor. J. B. Cashion, Shelby, N.C., specializes in section honey from cotton and has made a good crop for 10 years. Yields up to 150 pounds are occasionally made in many parts of the south but usually surpluses of 40 to 50