There are more than 150 species of honeysuckles in the Northern Hemisphere. Many of these have deep corolla tubes that are only accessible to humming birds and insects with long proboscises. The bush honeysuckle shown above is a valuable honey plant. It is very hardy growing from Newfoundland South to North Carolina. This variety usually blooms in late April into May. There are other species such as the winter honeysuckle (L. morrowi) that blooms in February and March in Arkansas. The fly-honeysuckle (L. involucrata) grows from California north to British Columbia. All of these are visited by honey bees and produce nectar.
Description of nectar
Honey produced by the bees from the nectar is a light amber, slow to granulate, and mild in flavor.
Description of pollen
The
color of the pollen carried back to the hive by the bees is almost a light brown/tan color.
Description of pollen grain
At 1000X the surface is
just visible and does not show up well in the photographs taken through my
microscope.