Hemisphere up to the Arctic Circle.
How Bees Make Honey
Nectar The principal raw material of honey is
the nectar collected from flowers, which
produce it in order to attract pollinating
insects and birds. Secondary sources include
nectaries elsewhere on the plant and
honeydew, the secretions of a particular group
of bugs. The chemical composition of nectar
varies widely, but its major ingredient by far
is sugars. Some nectars are mostly sucrose,
some are evenly divided among sucrose,
glucose, and fructose, and some (sage and
tupelo) are mostly fructose. A few nectars are
harmless to bees but poisonous to humans,
and so generate toxic honeys. Honey from the
Pontic region of eastern Turkey was notorious
in ancient Greece and Rome; a local species
of rhododendron carries “grayanotoxins,”
which interfere with both lung and heart
action.