Melliferous

[I]t vvas impoſſible to tell the Number of Palm-Trees, Olive-Trees, and Fig-trees [in Canaan]; beſides the Paſturage for raiſing innumerable Cattle; and vvas the great Market, for the Arabians and all the Countries about. And being Mountanous, could not but abound vvith Melliferous Plants of the beſt kind.

Pliny [the Elder] ſays this flovver [the anemone] […] differs alſo from ranunclulus in not having a melliferous pore on the clavv of each petal.

Thus, for the due fertilization of the common Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) it is necessary that the irritable stamens should be brought into contact with the pistil by the application of some stimulus to the base of the filament; but this would never take place were not insects attracted by the melliferous glands of the flower to insinuate themselves amongst the filaments, and thus while seeking their own food unknowingly fulfil the intentions of nature in another department.

In the Yucatan of Mexico, most resource-poor farmers manage garden, overstory, and edge vegetation to generate plant products for household use and income from non-timber forest products such as honey. Competing growth is removed around 34 melliferous plant species at field edges and in neighboring woodlands. This pruning requires in-depth knowledge of flowering phenology of melliferous and polliniferous species in the area.

The importance of the flowering in the dry season was reported by Porter-Bolland (2003), who found that at least 30% of the melliferous flora of Campeche flowers in the dry season.

The Hymenoptera belonging to the melliferous or honey-collecting division of the Aculeata, are known by the peculiar conformation of the hind feet, of which the first joint is compressed and extended into the form of a square plate, and provided on its inside with brush-like tufts; these organs are employed for the purpose of collecting and carrying the pollen of flowers, which is employed for the nourishment of the young.

It is stated that honey has been found in the galleries of certain exotic species of Ants, but it is doubtful whether they have not stolen it from some other animals. However this may be, the most perfect melliferous animals are the Bees.

[B]oth effective developmental beekeeping and population studies of honeybees are totally predicated on a knowledge of the natural distributions, relative population densities and carrying capacity of real or potential melliferous lands.