Lonicera dioica (Wild Honeysuckle)
Also known as: | Limber Honeysuckle, Red Honeysuckle, Glaucous Honeysuckle |
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Genus: | Lonicera |
Family: | Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle) |
Life cycle: | perennial woody |
Origin: | native |
Habitat: | part shade, shade; dry to moist; woods, thickets, rocky slopes, outcrops |
Bloom season: | May - June |
Plant height: | 5 to 10 feet |
Wetland Indicator Status: | GP: FACU MW: FACU NCNE: FACU |
MN county distribution (click map to enlarge): | |
National distribution (click map to enlarge): |
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Detailed Information
Flower:
A single cluster, occasionally 2, at the tips of 1-year-old branches, a cluster consisting of 1 to 5 whorls each with 6 stalkless flowers. Flower color is typically deep red to maroon, sometimes yellow and sometimes becoming yellow with age. Flowers are ½ to 1 inch long, with a long, slender tube and 2 lips, the upper broad with 4 lobes and the lower narrow and about as long as the tube. Outer surface is hairless, inner surface is hairy, especially in the throat. Protruding from the tube are 5 hairy stamens with pale tips and a long, slender, hairy style with a dome-shaped stigma at the tip.
At the base of the floral tube is a small hump, and between the flower and cluster stalk is the egg-shaped, green ovary. The cluster stalk is green and hairless. The leaf pair just below the flower are joined at the base, sometimes forming a cup around the cluster, the leaf pair typically oval-elliptic, the tips pointed, or rounded but with a tiny, sharp point (mucronate).
Leaves and stems:
Leaves are opposite, 1½ to 3½ inches long, 1 to 2½ inches wide, somewhat variable in shape, from lance-elliptic to egg-shaped to widest above the middle (obovate), rounded to blunt at the tip, and mostly rounded at the base. Edges are toothless, hairless and often a bit wavy. The upper surface is hairless, the lower a paler blue-green color and typically short-hairy but may be hairless. Besides the leaf pair at the tip of a flowering branch, the next 1 or 2 pairs below that may also be joined around the stem (perfoliate). Otherwise, leaves are stalkless or short stalked; stalks may be hairy.
Twigs are green and hairless, older bark gray or brown and peeling. Branches are twining and may take root when they touch the ground, forming clonal plants.
Fruit:
Fruit is a round to oval berry, bright red to orange-red, ¼ to ½ inch long.
Notes:
Of the 3 vining honeysuckles in Minnesota, this is the most common, found throughout the state except in a few south and western counties. It is most likely to be confused with Hairy Honeysuckle (Lonicera hirsuta), which has proportionately broader leaves with a fringe of spreading hairs around the edge, hairs on both surfaces, glandular-hairy first-year twigs, and flowers that are more typically yellow. 2 varieties of L. dioica have been recorded in Minnesota: var. dioica with virtually hairless leaves is uncommon, and var. glaucescens with hairs on leaf undersides is found everywhere.
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More photos
- Wild Honeysuckle plants
- old, twining stem
- Wild Honeysuckle plants
- Wild Honeysuckle with yellow flowers
- sprawling and climbing Wild Honeysuckle
- uppermost leaf pair forming a cup around the flowers; note the blue-green color
- variation of uppermost leaves
Photos by K. Chayka taken in Ramsey County. Other photos courtesy Peter M. Dziuk.
Comments
Have you seen this plant in Minnesota, or have any other comments about it?
on: 2015-05-23 18:41:10
Found along the Hiking Club Trail.
on: 2015-07-23 10:38:43
Found in the trees next to our driveway on the Gull River between Pillager and Baxter.
on: 2016-05-13 21:50:18
Growing along a trail in a native woodland dominated by walnut, bur and red oak, elm and hackberry.
on: 2016-05-24 17:18:06
We have seen this in a wooded across the road from us. It is in the ditch. Are the berries edible? Thank you.
on: 2016-06-04 21:39:57
I noticed it right away because it was so unusual to see the flowers seemingly growing right from the middle of the leaf.
on: 2017-08-07 13:58:08
Was stumped because I had not seen this before. Cool little cluster of berries at the center of the leaf.
on: 2017-08-08 21:36:45
I got help identifying the wild honeysuckle by posting my photos on kaxe season watch Facebook page.
on: 2019-06-03 07:14:03
Beautiful example of this shrub in bloom near Isinours, along the Root River Bike Trail in Fillmore County.
on: 2021-09-01 21:29:52
Found this plant growing wild along my gravel driveway in St. Louis County.
on: 2021-09-12 22:42:56
On edge of my driveway at my cabin, Wabedo Lake, MN.
on: 2023-05-25 21:47:56
Located alongside a small pond on the Hiking Club Trail in William O'Brien State Park.
on: 2023-06-02 12:50:00
Has anyone reading this attempted to germinate any of the native Lonicera vines from seed? My apartment complex has 5-6 L. dioicas that do quite well and I'd like to try my hand at propagating them. Anyone's experience growing this plant (even failed experience) appreciated!