Tropical Afromontane forest has the potential for honey production. The main objective of the study was to identify major bee floras and its diversity in different vegetation communities of Gesha-Sayilem forest. Bee flora data were collected systematically from 90 plots with subplots for shrubs and herbaceous species. In addition, pollen traps having 16% pollen trapping efficiency were fitted at the entrance of beehives for pollen load collection. Shannon-Wiener diversity index; species richness and Shannon’s evenness were employed to determine diversity of bee flora. The result showed that 93 bee plant species belongings to 43 families were identified of which Asteraceae the most abundant family was followed by Lamiaceae, Fabaceae, Acanthaceae and Rubiaceae. The analysis of bee forage diversity using Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) found in 5 different plant communities showed that plant communities one, two, and three have the highest bee flora diversity 3.2, 3.2, and 3.5, respectively. The dominant bee plants in community one were (Ilex mitis and Syzygium guineens), community two (Pouteria adolfi-friederici and Schefflera abyssinica), Community three (Millettia ferruginea and Sapium ellipticum), community four (Hagenia abyssinica and Dombeya torrida), community five (Schefflera-volkensi and Maesa lanceolata). Sorensen similarity coefficient showed that communities 1, 2, 3, and 5 are more similar to each other while community four is less similar. On the other hand, the beta diversity for communities 1, 2, 3, and 5 were 0.25, 0.27, 0.39, and 0.28 respectively while community four has a higher beta diversity index (0.71) indicating low similarity with the rest of the plant communities. In conclusion community 1, 2 and 3 has a high diversity of bee flora and therefore, integration of these communities with beekeeping is recommended.
Bee flora diversity in different vegetation communities of Gesha-Sayilem forest in Kaffa Zone, south-western Ethiopia
