# What is this?



## jeff123fish (Jul 3, 2007)

I know that these pictures are not very good I took them with my phone and I will try to get some better ones this weekend. I found this plant growing in a gravel bank not far from my hives and this thing was just covered with bees. There was goldenrod all around but they wouldn't touch it. The plant was about 7 feet tall and must have had two or three hundred bees on it.


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## papa bear (Nov 1, 2005)

hey jeff, if this is the same thing i have been trying to figure out now for a couple of years. and i hope some of you guys will correct me if i am wrong. in the audubon feild guide gives it as japanese bamboo, or knotweed 
http://www.invasive.org/search/action.cfm?q=japanese bamboo
this site gives it as an invasive plant














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## jeff123fish (Jul 3, 2007)

Wow your pictures were alot more helpful than mine. Any idea if it is a good nectar/pollen producer?



-Jeff


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## JPK (May 24, 2008)

A neighbor who's father kept bees years ago told me its called it Bee Bush.

I wonder what the real name is of this plant.

We have a good bit of it up here and the bees do in fact love it.


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## papa bear (Nov 1, 2005)

those pics are from the web site http://www.invasive.org/. good site


jpk could this be the same plant just another name.


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

it is a good nectar/pollen producer, and the honey is verry dark jsut ask the "powernapper"

The bees will return to the hive looking like they have been rolled in powderd sugar


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## bleta12 (Feb 28, 2007)

It is Japanese knot weed or bamboo and this year the weather in Northeast is very good so the bees are visiting these plants a lot, the honey is dark and has very nice flavor. 
It is an invasive plant like purple loose strife. Being invasive myself I love them both.

Gilman


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## TwT (Aug 5, 2004)

yup, its japanese knotweed, look here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed

Quote from site



> Japanese knotweed flowers are valued by some beekeepers as an important source of nectar for honeybees, at a time of year when little else is flowering. Japanese knotweed yields a monofloral honey, usually called bamboo honey by northeastern U.S. beekeepers, like a mild-flavored version of buckwheat honey (a related plant also in the Polygonaceae).


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

bleta12 said:


> Being invasive myself I love them both.Gilman


Invasives are a good thing, eh, Gilman. Doesn't it seem that most of the invasives we have are good honey plants?

Tartarian Honeysuckle, Buckthorn, Purple Loosetrife, Bamboo...


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## Jack Grimshaw (Feb 10, 2001)

I like to see my bees foraging on Knotweed and there is good demand for the honey but I would NEVER plant it. It is the devil to eradicate


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## Shrtcke (Mar 14, 2008)

I did a little research myself online. There is quite a bit of it in the neighbors back yard and in other places in the area. I never knew what it was. It was covered in honeybees. I agree that it is knotweed. This year in my area the locust blossoms were sparse as was the milk weed. We were worried about our honey crop. But they are putting it away and we got a little sample while inspecting supers. Good stuff.


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