Each species has its own canopy size, forage radius and nectar/pollen value. Click anywhere on the plot to plant the selected species there. A plant only helps the colony if it falls inside the hive's foraging radius — bees have a limited flight range, so anything planted beyond that ring is wasted effort. Within range, each plant's translucent disc marks the ground its blossom can realistically supply; overlapping discs are redundant, while patches inside the hive ring that no disc reaches show up as gaps.
active = dist(plant, hive) ≤ hiveRadius
covered(cell) = ∃ active plant : dist(cell, plant) ≤ forageR
coverage% = covered_cells / reachable_cells
- Species — trees (willow, hawthorn, lime) give a large canopy and forage radius but need spacing; shrubs (bramble) are small and cheap to pack into gaps.
- Foraging radius — how far the colony can profitably fly; a small apiary or garden plot needs everything planted well inside this ring.
- Coverage — the share of reachable ground actually within reach of at least one blossoming plant, shown as a live heat-tint on the plot: greenish where covered, reddish where reachable but empty.
- Total nectar value — the summed forage value of every plant that is actually in range; planting outside the hive ring adds nothing to this number.
Real-world relevance: this mirrors how beekeepers and land managers plan forage landscapes — sequencing large, high-value trees with gap-filling shrubs so the whole area within flight range stays in bloom, rather than leaving big unreachable or unplanted patches.