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Abstract. Bareke T, Addi A. 2019. Bee flora resources and honey production calendar of Gera Forest in Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 69-74. Gera forest contains substantial coverage of natural forest and known as a Key Biodiversity Hotspot area for Coffea arabica conservation and one of the potential areas for beekeeping. The study was carried out to assess the bee flora and flowering calendar to harvest more honey following the flowering plant cycle. Semi-structured questionnaires, participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques, and field observation were used for data collection. Honey samples collection was also made to identify the botanical origin of honey through honey pollen analysis. Seventy-four bee plant species were identified, which belongs to 41 families. Among the identified plant families, Asteraceae (29.3%), Lamiaceae (14.6%), Acanthaceae (12.2%), and Fabaceae (9.8%) are the most frequent families, represented by the highest species composition in the area. Four major honey harvesting durations were identified (January, March, April, and early June for Vernonia, Coffee, Schefflera, and Croton honey respectively) using the flowering calendar in Gera Forest. The pollen analysis of honey revealed that four types of monofloral honeys were identified comprising Schefflera abyssinica, Vernonia amygdalina, C. arabica and Croton macrostachyus in Gera forest. This is due to their abundance and potentiality for honey production. Therefore, the beekeepers should follow the flowering calendar of the plant to exploit the potential of the forest for honey production. Furthermore, market promotion for monofloral honeys of the Gera forest should be made as an incentive for the beekeepers to sell honey with premium prices and branding and labeling of honey of the area

Abstract. Addi A, Soromessa T, Bareke T. 2020. Plant diversity and community analysis of Gesha and Sayilem Forest in Kaffa Zone, southwestern Ethiopia. Biodiversitas 21: 2878-2888. The study was conducted at Gesha and Sayilem districts of the Kaffa Zone with the objective of identifying the floristic compositions, plant community types, and associated environmental factors of the forest. Stratified random sampling technique was used. A total of 90 plots were used to collect vegetation data. The plant community classification was performed using agglomerative Hierarchical cluster analysis Ward’s linkage method was applied in R-software. Species diversity and evenness were evaluated using the Shannon diversity and evenness indices respectively. The study revealed that the study area composed of 300 species that belong to 239 genera in 96 families. Asteraceae was the most abundant family followed by Fabaceae, Acanthaceae, Poaceae, Rubiaceae, and Euphorbiaceae accounting 37%, 15%, 14%, 13%, 12%, and 9% respectively. Five plant community types were identified and these were Ilex mitis-Syzygium guineense, Pouteria adolfi-friedericii-Schefflera abyssinica, Millettia ferruginea-Sapium ellipticum, Arundinaria alpina and Schefflera volkensii-Masea-lanceolata community types. Among the community types, Pouteria adolfi-friedericii-Syzygium guineense community was the most diverse whereas Arundinaria alpina community was the least diverse community. Canonical Correspondence of vegetation data analysis indicated that altitude, disturbance, slope, phosphorus, and the electrical conductivity were the environmental factors that significantly influence the plant communities. The high dependency of local communities on the forest resources is affecting the plant biodiversity. Thus, conservation of the forest through the introduction of sustainable forest management interventions including participatory forest management seems an appropriate action.

Nineteen samples of honey were collected from different localities of the Borana Zone and examined to identify the botanical origin of honey through honey pollen analysis. From nineteen honey samples, sixteen were identified as monofloral honeys. Twentyeight plant species were identified as honey source plants and the identified plant species belonged to fourteen plant families. Out of twenty-eight bee plant species, 17.9% of them were found in the Fabaceae family followed by Asteraceae and Lamiaceae, each of them accounting for 14.3% of all honey plants species found in the samples. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) showed that high diversity of plant species was found in eleven honey samples with a range of 1.07 (Bule Hora site 1) to 1.81 (Yabello site 2) on the basis of honey pollen analysis. Eight honey samples had lower diversity index values, ranging from 0 (Arero site 2 and Bule Hora site 3) to 0.84 (Gelana site1), which suggests the honey was obtained from a few dominant plant species. Accordingly, Guizotia scabra, Haplocoelum foliolosum, Plectranthus assurgens, Terminalia brownii, Sesamum indicum, Satureja paradoxa, Croton macrostachyus and Acacia brevispica were the major monofloral honeys produced from the area. This indicates that there is a huge potential for the production of monofloral honey. Since monofloral honey has a good market value and is preferred by consumers, the involvement of investors is recommended.

The study identified the status of landrace (farmers' variety) diversity of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in a participatory field research conducted in selected zones southern and eastern Ethiopia. Data were collected by interviewing common bean growers, direct field observations and ethnobotanical information retrieval. Germplasm accessions (169) and voucher specimens (39) of common bean were collected at locations ranging from 1500-2500m a.s.l. These were sorted into 133(78.7%) landraces and 36(21.3%) introduced improved varieties. The highest diversity (2.34) of landraces (12) was found in Agarfa while the lowest (0.67) at Boloso Sore where only two landraces dominated the fields. The dominant landraces were ADI TIKKO, DIMA, BORA, DUME, WAJJO, ZOOLOKOMA and BUSHAY in West Hararge, Bale, Arsi, Sidama, Wolayita and Siltie, respectively. This dominance is associated with market and use values. Farmers need to be encouraged and supported by stakeholders to consciously monitor the conservation of common bean landraces for all their worth, which include use values, agroecological intensification, income generation potential, role in breeding and other domestic purposes. In addition to this, governmental and non-governmental organizations should consider the conservation of common bean landraces under both in-situ and ex-situ strategies.

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.

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Abstract. Addi A, Bareke T. 2019. Review: Floral resources diversity and vegetation types important for honeybees in Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 64-68. The high biodiversity of Ethiopia is attributed to its wide range of altitude and great geo-morphological diversity. This has resulted in the existence of a high diversity of floral resources of which majority of them are visited by honeybees. This paper aimed to review existing studies on bee floral resources in Ethiopia to understand the types of bee plants, floral diversity, flowering period and food source offered by the plants. Over 1500 species of indigenous and exotic plants belonging to 105 bee plant families have been identified. The growth form of bee forage comprises 41.6% herb, 28.7% shrubs, 21.7% trees, and 8% climbers. The majority of bee plant species flower from September to November and April to May, resulting in two major honey flow periods in the country. From this information, Ethiopia has rich bee forage diversity across different vegetation types, however, further collection and documentation of bee flora are required in unaddressed areas of the country. Thus in situ conservation by ecological restoration, and raising and planting of seedlings of bee forages should be promoted for sustainable honey production.