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 Rewarewa
or New Zealand  Honeysuckle
(Knightia excelsa) is a member of the Protea family
(Proteaceae) and is found throughout the North Island of New
Zealand and in the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South
Island. A tree growing up to 30 metres high, conical in shape,
and with a trunk up to 1 metre in diameter, Rewarewa flowers
from October to December with a complicated flower structure
adapted to bird pollination. This stucture's purpose is to prevent
cross pollination.
Pollen Representation
Thepollen grains of Rewarewa are large (around 40 - 50 microns)
and as with many bird pollinated plants,
the pollen bearing anthers are separated from the nectaries
by some distance. Few pollen grains therefore find their way
into the nectar and this produces a honey with a low
pollen representation. Moar
(1985) suggested that this honey type requires at least
10% pollen to classify as a monofloral honey. This also corresponds
to a low total pollen content with a normal range for this figure
of 40,000 to 120,000 total pollen grains per 10gms of honey.
It is possible in years of very good production to get levels
of over 60% Rewarewa pollen. However this only occurs very rarely,
and must also accompany good hive management practises for targetting
mononfloral honeys. The most common other pollen type found
in Rewarewa honey is Kamahi which flowers
in a similar time period.
Colour
Rewarewa honey is an amber colour averaging 92.9 mm
(Pfund Scale) with a standard deviation of 9.5mm. This is
within 10 mm colour of the average colour of manuka
honey and the two can be confused on this basis. Rewarewa
has a definite redish brown tint to its colour. While manuka
is a more expensive honey than rewarewa, as well as being an
over represented pollen, it is far more likely that Rewarewa
honey is misidentified as manuka than
the other way round.
Sugar Profile
Rewarewa is a slow crystallising honey but does crystallise
naturally. They crystals tend to be large. We have few sugar
analyses for Rewarea at present but from initial data, Glucose
is around 28.5%, Fructose 36% and Sucrose < 1%
Flavour
Rewarewa honey has a delightful smooth malty flavour.
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