Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Tatarian honeysuckle

TATARIAN HONEYSUCKLE

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Lonicera tatarica L.

Mitchell County Kansas

Height: Shrubs to 16 feet

Family: Caprifoliaceae - Honeysuckle Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Trunks:

Stems erect; branches unarmed; bark grayish brown, cracking in long plates or strips, sometimes exfoliating; wood yellowish brown to tan, hard.

Twigs:

Tan to brown to greenish brown, flexible, smooth, glabrous; leaf scars triangular; pith tan; buds brown, ovoid to globose, .07 to .08 inch, apex acute to obtuse, scales minutely ciliate.

Leaves:

Deciduous, opposite, simple; petiole .12 to .2 inch, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; blade ovate to oblong, 1 to 1.8 inch, base rounded to wedge-shaped, margins entire to obscurely wavy, apex obtuse to acute, lower surfaces light green, slightly glaucous, glabrous, upper surfaces green, not glaucous, glabrous.

Flowers:

Inflorescences small, few-flowered cymes, axillary on new growth, 2 per node, each 2-flowered; peduncle .6 to 1 inch; pedicels absent. Flowers bisexual, bilaterally symmetric; hypanthium ovoid, .06 to .08 inch; sepals 5, connate; petals 5, connate, corolla pink or white tinged pink, 2-lipped, glabrous, tube gibbous at base, .28 to .3 inch, pubescent internally, abaxial lip 1-lobed, adaxial lip 4-lobed, lobes .35 to .5 inch long, .07 to .16 inch wide; stamens 5, exserted; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 2-3-locular; style .28 to .43 inch, pubescent; stigma capitate.

Fruit:

July-October; berries, reddish orange, globose, .2 to .28 inch diam., smooth, glabrous; seeds 3-6, yellow, ovoid, compressed, .1 to .12 inch long, .08 to .1 inch wide, granulate, longitudinally 1-ridged.

Habitat:

Woodlands and forests, thickets, urban woodlots, roadsides.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Naturalized

Comments:

Lonicera tatarica has been planted widely in windbreaks and borders, especially in New England, the Midwest, and the northern Great Plains. It is legally noxious in four New England states. Its use in Kansas has been more limited. It is currently documented in three counties, and additional populations can be expected in woodlands and woodlots in the eastern half of the state.

Tatarian honeysuckle leaves