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| Cissus trifoliata |
Today was the Tour deHives, and I met some lovely people! We had five groups (11 people in all) who came out to see the apiary, and we sat in the shade, sipped iced tea and lemonade, and talked bees and plants. I loved it, and I learned a lot. For example, I have been noticing this fleshy vine that looks a lot like a slightly succulent variety of poison ivy coming up all over the new beds and in the yard. Turns out it's not poison ivy, it's a relative of Virginia creeper call cow-itch or sorrelvine. I found two different scientific names for it:
Cissus insisa from the Texas Native Plants Database from Texas A&M, and
Cissus trifoliata from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plant database. Both of them have the same common names associated with them. It's a member of the grape family, a vigorous climber, and--like Virginia creeper--is loaded with toxic levels of oxalic acid in both the leaves and the fruit. It can also cause a skin rash, which is probably why one of the landscapers swore it was poison ivy. Curiously, oxalic acid is one of the common treatments in bee hives for varroa mites. One of the people on the Tour de Hives today speculated on potential benefits from bees pollinating the
Cissus and possibly introducing a natural source of oxalic acid into the hives that might affect the mite population.
I also found out today that one of the oak tree species I have growing in the garden is the Lacey oak. Someone on the tour asked me what one of the existing trees in our botanical garden was, and I didn't know. But I had all my Texas gardening and bee books out for the tour so I was able to look it right up. I only have a couple of these trees, and they are extremely slow growers so mine could be over 20 years old. As I was looking at it today, I had the thought that I might have planted the olive tree too close to it. I guess it depends how much the olive tree is going to grow.
Tomorrow is the day of bee lectures and I am signed up for the 201 class with a talk at 10:00 by Les Crowder who is one of the foremost TopBar beekeeping experts in the country. Though I would like to spend one last quiet day with the family before school starts on Monday, I can't miss the opportunity to hear Les speak. Maybe he'll tell me why my TopBar bees are so cranky...
3 comments:
there's a wild bee hive in the wall of my next door absent neighbor's house. I should probably call the beekeeper I buy my honey from to come get them but I like having the bees in my yard.
You know Ellen, You *could* get the beekeeper to catch the swarm for you and put them in a hive in your yard. Nothing wrong with that. Of course that's assuming it's apis mellifera and not some kind of yellow jacket or wasp. I bet you could even twist my arm to come down and help get you set up if wanted.... :-)
Or maybe you could shift the bees to YOUR yard?
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