NUSANTARA BIOSCIENCE ISSN: 2087-3948 Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 172-181 E-ISSN: 2087-3956 November 2022 DOI: 10.13057/nusbiosci/n140207 Diversity, floral phenology, and socio-economic importance of melliferous plants in Eastern Ethiopia AMARE FASSIL 1,♥ , TSEGAW HABTAMU 2 , MUHDIN TAHIR 2, TEMESGEN TEREFE 3 1 Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Injibara University. PO Box 40, Injibara, Ethiopia. Tel./fax.: +25158-227-21-11,  email: amarefassil@gmail.com 2 Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Oda Bultum University. PO Box 226, Chiro, Ethiopia 3 Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Oda Bultum University. PO Box 226, Chiro, Ethiopia Manuscript received: 14 July 2022. Revision accepted: 28 August 2022. Abstract. Fassil A, Habtamu T, Tahir M, Terefe T. 2022. Diversity, floral phenology, and socio-economic importance of melliferous plants in Eastern Ethiopia. Nusantara Bioscience 14: 172-181. Beekeeping is a supply of extra money and financial gain for many thousands of farmer beekeepers in Ethiopia and plays a big role in preserving natural resources. Honeybees and flowering plants have co-evolved in their special symbiotic relationship. Bee plant types and their flowering duration differ from one place to another due to variations in topography, climate, and other cultural and farming practices. This study investigated and documented the diversity and floral phenology of honeybee plants in Doba, Gemechis, and Mi’eso Districts, Oromia National Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia, from January 2019 to July 2021. Ethnobotanical data were collected to reveal the diversity of melliferous plants, practices, and communities’ attitudes about honey production and melliferous plant conservation. A total of 422 respondents participated through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and field walks for socio-economic data collection. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, ranking, and scores were used and presented with tables and figures to analyze ethnobotanical data. A total of 120 melliferous plant species were distributed under 108 genera and 55 families, of which 70 plants were found in the Gemechis District, followed by Doba and Mi’eso Districts with 47 and 42 plants each, respectively. Sorenson’s Similarity Index values showed the wide -ranging melliferous plant species distribution patterns in the three districts with 50.4 (between Doba and Mi’eso), 37.5 (between Doba and Gemechis), and 15.3 (between Gemechis and Mi’eso) species overlaps. Fabaceae and Asteraceae contribute a significant number of species, with 12 (10 %) and 9 (7.5 %) melliferous plants, respectively. Local communities have a good awareness of the seasonal availability of melliferous plants, indicating adequate supply (June to early December) and critical shortage (November to early May) of melliferous plant resources favoring strong and weak colony strength, respectively. Lack of nutrition, improper management practices, honey bee predators, and lack of beekeeping knowledge and equipment were the most important constraints deleteriously influencing the honey quality and amount in the study area. The shortage of pollen and nectar flow during the dearth periods (January to March) needs interventions like hive migration and bee floral plantations. Hence, there is an urgent need for intervention through awareness creation, campaign-based melliferous plant plantations, and technology transfers. Keywords: Ethiopia, floral phenology, honey production constraints, melliferous plant INTRODUCTION Beekeeping is a floral-based industry where honey bees entirely depend on flowering plants (Olana and Demrew 2019) and vice versa for their mutual benefit of pollination and provision of food in the form of pollen and nectar, respectively (Urbanowicz et al. 2020; Khalifa et al. 2021). Reproduction, productivity, and diversification successes of flowering plants are attributed to honey bees’ behavior and practices of varying vegetarian diets, flower-visiting habits, hairy bodies that readily pick up pollen grains, and visit many flowers of the same species during a single trip (Bhalchandra et al. 2014). The implication is that honey bees greatly subsidize ecosystem conservation and agricultural production while they produce important products such as honey and wax (FAO 2009; Minja and Nkumilwa 2016). Beekeeping in Ethiopia is a longstanding, quick, off- farm, environmentally friendly, and major income- generating agricultural activity, providing diverse income and employment opportunities (Sahle et al. 2018; Olana and Demrew 2019). Annual honey production in the country was estimated at 43,373 metric tons, sharing about 23.5% and 2.35% of Africa’s and the world’s honey production, respectively (Sahle et al. 2018). These blessings ranked Ethiopia the leader in Africa and the ninth in the world in honey production and stand first in Africa and third in the world in beeswax production (Legesse 2014). Agro-ecology-based management of honey bees and their beehives during short or long dearth periods (Teferi 2018) and clear awareness of the effects of floral composition on honey bee food stores (Donkersley 2017) are vital, among others, for efficient honey productivity. By the same token, local beekeepers’ perception and knowledge of identifying the important melliferous plant and their flowering patterns during the dry and rainy seasons greatly impact the stable production of quality honey (Novac 2017; Coh-Martínez et al. 2019). Some ready reckoner documentation of melliferous plant type, density, flowering period, and quality of melliferous plants