Hey, glad you're here cause I'd really like to know how you guys are able to collect that nectar, when that very poison is an - forgive me using this trigger word - insecticide...
Psttt Psttt, I know your busy so I dug this up, "In contrast to humans, grayanotoxin poisoning can be lethal for other animals. Nectar containing grayanotoxin can kill honeybees, though some seem to have resistance to it and can produce honey from the nectar. According to a team of researchers from the UK and Ireland, worker bumblebees are not harmed and may be preferable as pollinators because they transfer more pollen. Consequently, it may be advantageous for plants to produce grayanotoxin in order to be pollinated by bumblebees." It seems the rhododendrons REALLY like the job you and your team do, lol.
Just an FYI. When I decided to create this, I set out to share something that I had read in a newspaper column decades ago and found fascinating. In that story, the Romans were chasing the Greeks, or vice versa, and the perused remembered a tale of what had befallen their soldiers a century before, when they had hunkered down in a particular valley. They arranged for their persuers to end up overnighting in the same valley, hoping for a similar fate. In that version, the local honey was created from foxglove nectar and laced with digitalis and the soldiers found the toxic honeycombs by routine foraging. I couldn't find that version, but while researching, I came across deli bal, which might have been the columnist's inspiration. Hey, psychoactive honey, currently on retail, is way more interesting than heart medicine honey anyways. Cheers.
hmmmmmmmmmmmm
hymmmmm
beeeeeeeees