Wild Cucumber

   As a beekeeper it is hard to avoid becoming an amateur botanist. I can't help but take an interest in any new plant that the girls find interesting.  I learned a new one the other day as my friend Quentin and I saw honeybees working small white blossoms on an unknown climbing vine.  Friendly bystanders identified the plant as a wild cucumber.  I had not noticed this plant near my house, but there appeared to be a lot of it growing in Quentin's neighborhood.

Note the cucumber-like fruit forming in the upper center of the photo

I believe this to be wild cucumber

    When I got home I quickly consulted my copy of Honey Plants of North America by John H. Lovell.  I found two short paragraphs on page 234 and a black and white photograph on page 235.   I learned its scientific name is Echinocystis lobata and that it grows wild along rivers from New England to Texas.  The black and white photo was sufficient for me to be confident that I had the right plant. This in spite of the fact that the book failed to mention wild cucumber's presence in the Pacific Northwest.  Wild cucumber is reported to yield a light amber honey of good quality in the bottom lands of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.  This would explain wild cucumber's presence in Quentin's neighborhood as he lives near a river while I do not.

   This book is an excellent resource for the serious beekeeper,  who just has to identify any plants his bees are working.  The only serious shortcomings in the book's usefulness are the fact that it was published in 1926 and the lack of good quality color photographs.  The book has since been republished, but not updated. The book is divided into two sections.  In the first section, honey plants are listed alphabetically. The second section of the book has an overview for each of the lower 48 states.  Actually, at the time the book was originally published, Alaska and Hawaii were still territories.  At the present time the Himalaya Blackberry is the most significant honey plant in Western Washington.  This is a non-native invasive species which escaped into the wild from Luther Burbank's plant breeding program.  In Lovell's book there is no mention of the Himalaya Blackberry in the plant section and no mention of any blackberries as a significant nectar source in Western Washington.  That is because in 1926 there were no Himalaya Blackberries in Western Washington.  There is also no mention of Japanese Knotweed, but I assume in 1926 it had either not yet been imported or not yet escaped to the wild. The book does mention Fireweed, the native Oregon Maple (Big Leaf Maple) and Vine Maple as significant honey plants in Western Washington.