Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

GRAPE HONEYSUCKLE

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Lonicera reticulata Raf.

Dyck Arboretum, Harvey County, Kansas

Height: Perennial vines to 14+ feet

Family: Caprifoliaceae – Honeysuckle Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Trunks:

Stems Climbing on surrounding vegetation or occasionally trailing on ground.

Twigs:

Twigs tan, sometimes tinged purplish, glabrous, bark of mature branches shredding. Winter buds conical, sometimes flattened, glabrous.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple; blades elliptic or obovate, 1.2 to 3.6 inches long, 1.1 to 3.1 inches wide, base usually tapered, tip usually bluntly pointed; uppermost blades strongly perfoliate, broadly elliptic to oblong elliptic or nearly circular, 1-1.5 time as long as wide, tip rounded, broadly angled to usually bluntly pointed, sometimes abruptly pointed to minute, sharp point, upper surface green, perfoliate leaves often strongly glaucous and irregularly pale green, under surface glaucous , glabrous or sparsely to moderately pubescent, sometimes spreading hairs on midvein.

Flowers:

Flowers usually in 2-4 whorls of 6, terminal on branch tips; essile; bracts 2, linear to bluntly triangular, to .08 inch, glabrous; calyx lobes 5, oblong-rounded to triangular, glabrous; corollas cream or pale yellow, .7 to 1.1 inch long, divided one third to one halfway to base; petals 5, connate, 2-lipped, lips recurved or curled, upper lip shallowly (3)4-lobed, lower lip with 1 lobe; stamens 5, exserted, longer than corolla lobes; pistil 1; style 1, exserted, capitate, sparsely pubescent.

Fruit:

Berries, orangish-red to red, globose, .2 to .4 inch in diam. Seeds yellowish, ellipsoid, .12 inch long, .08 wide, flattened, glabrous.

Habitat:

Mesic to dry woods, streambanks, and bases, ledges, and tops of bluffs.

Distribution:

Documented in Bourbon County, Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Grape honeysuckle habit