Americas Bee Map - interpretation please

[eltalia]

map attached was posted elsewhere with the comment;
"Another interesting discovery is the forage map of the
 USA through NASA that I found and am sharing."

Yet I get nothing from it.
Am I the only one left wondering..wt...!

Bill

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Bill, this is a totally cool map.  I found NASA original that is touch sensitive.  A person can touch a colored region, such as Arkansas and a pop up appears with the flowers of that region and blooming times throughout the flowering period.  In Arkansas from March till September/October and listed at least 20 different flowers that the bees forage on.

A detailed map, Buddy, touch sensitive on my iPhone.  Very useful information as some flowers listed are unknown to me,,,,,, joe pye,, or something like that.  I just took a quick look.

Funny, a fella on the other side of the planet discovers and provided a useful flower map of the US, my area in detail included. Thanks Bill.
Cheers

[Bush_84]

Cool map but I?d say dates are off for my region. Everything seems to be a month or two early.

Link for interactive map.

https://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Honeybees/Forage.htm

[BeeMaster2]

Good site Bill, thanks.
Jim

[texanbelchers]

The dates may have shifted some due to climate, etc.  The data is from 1992 according to their footnote.   I just don't see all the listed plants around me. 

[Acebird]

I think the bloom dates are from earliest to latest.  Because the color bands stretch from south to north on some colors the earliest is southern regions and the latest is northern.

[Bush_84]

I think the bloom dates are from earliest to latest.  Because the color bands stretch from south to north on some colors the earliest is southern regions and the latest is northern.

That still doesn?t account for all of it. You can click on your state for specific information. The bloom dates do vary fro, where I am to southern Minnesota but not by that much. Climate may have also changed but I don?t think dandelions have ever bloomed that early in Minnesota. I think that what they did was just put a vague range for the whole region and simply list the common foliage in each state and attach the vague numbers. There?s no way that those numbers are specific for Minnesota, which I suppose is what ace was getting at.

[Acebird]

If you look at the dark green color of MN, same as NY it stretches south all the way to OK.

[eltalia]

"In this context, important is defined by Ayers and Harman as those
species that "reliably produce a large percent of the harvested honey"
within the selected region."

Thanks guys... relevance is now clear in my head :)
Mentioned particular thanks for @Bush_84 posting the link.

Bill