In the last blog entry, I left you with this:
In the end, I had a reasonably accurate list of forage, based on habitats and locale, with flowering windows built in, and I was using established development delays. I thought I was finished.
No, I wasn’t finished.
I discovered another source of plant data, that actually told me what species were available in 2 km x 2 km blocks (tetrads), all over the UK. And that data comes from Plant Atlas 2020. Plant Atlas 2020 is an ongoing national plant survey that started in the 1950’s.
I could not wait to integrate this, as this would become the primary evidence layer I was missing. Don’t get me wrong, the existing evidence layer from the RHS and other supported sources was great. This was the icing on the cake, the pièce de résistance. I was so happy about it that I imbibed that night.
Feeling refreshed
With the dawn of a new day, I set to work integrating this new evidence layer. So, it’s about at this time you might want a refresher on how many evidence layers there are that contribute towards forage outlook. Exactly what does it know about the surrounding area of your apiary(s)?
What the forage evidence layer means
The forage evidence layer helps the model decide whether a wild or semi-wild forage source is likely to be supported near your apiary. The likelihood is baked in to the Plant Atlas survey results.
These records don’t say how many flowers are in your field or garden. But they absolutely do show how often a plant has been recorded in nearby 2 km recording squares.
That helps the forecast avoid broad assumptions and calculate a reasonable level for your locale. For bee related purposes this is ideal, as bees travel up to 5 miles (c. 11 km), but more realistically it’s less than two miles (c. 4 .5km).
Plant Atlas helps answer: “Is this plant source actually supported around here?”
It does not and cannot prove that the plant is flowering today, producing nectar today, or being worked by your bees today. But it can give you a jolly good idea with a reasonable level of accuracy.
The forecast combines plant evidence (which we have) with flowering timing (which we have), maturity (remember Hopkins and plant life-cycles), weather (open-Meteo) and your selected forage profile.
What “supported by” sources mean
Some forage notes mention other recognised sources such as RHS, Plantlife, Woodland Trust, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, UKCEH and Forest Research.
These sources support the model’s general understanding of plants, habitats, flowering periods, planting context and beekeeping relevance and they were my first usable source data for the first evidence layer. Plant Atlas data is now on top of that as the primary layer.
They all combine to help answer questions such as:
- is this plant known as a bee forage source?
- is it a tree, shrub, wildflower, crop, garden plant or wet-edge plant?
- what kind of habitat is it associated with?
- is it usually wild, planted, managed or garden-based?
- when is it broadly likely to matter in the season?
It still wasn’t finished.
