DESCRIPTION
This unique honey comes from the blossoms of the cotton plant. On the first day of bloom, honey bees collect nectar secreted inside the creamy white flowers. After a day, the flowers become pink, and the bees find nectar on the external nectaries at the base of the blossom. Over the next couple days, the bloom color deepens to red, and the honey bees move on to collect nectar from the green-colored bracts, leaf-like flower parts on the base of the flower, as well as from nectar secreted from the underside of the leaves. In the space of a week, the flower dries up and falls away, and a cotton boll takes its place, eventually cracking open to reveal the tufts of white cotton on the inside. Cotton is a member of the mallow family which includes hibiscus, hollyhock, and okra.
