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Thornaby-on-Tees sits on the north bank of the Tees directly across from Stockton, its Victorian riverside town centre backed by modern residential estates and the Teesmouth wetland reserve at the North Tees marshes to the east. Hawthorn along the riverside footpath, mature sycamore in the older streets near the town centre, and the oilseed rape on the Teesside flatland carry a productive spring season; the Teesmouth Nature Reserve at Seal Sands is a short flight east.

Oilseed rape on the flat arable plain between the Tees and the Cleveland escarpment produces a heavy April to May flow, particularly around Stokesley, Stillington and the fields east of Yarm. Hawthorn and blackthorn are thick in the suburban hedgerows of Stockton, Billingham and Guisborough. Lime trees line the Victorian residential streets of Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Redcar and carry a reliable June flow. The defining feature of the landscape is the extent of ex-industrial grassland: former ICI works at Billingham and Wilton, steelworks sites at Redcar, and colliery reclamation ground throughout are dense with bramble, rosebay willowherb and white clover from June through August. Sea buckthorn and coastal meadow wildflowers on the North Tees marshes, Coatham Sands and Huntcliff provide a distinctive supplement near the shore. The Cleveland Hills rise sharply south of Guisborough, Skelton and Loftus and carry ling heather and bilberry from late July into September — within easy reach of apiaries on the urban fringe.