Morrow's Honeysuckle (EwA Guide to Common Invasive Species in Middlesex County (MA, US) )

Morrow's Honeysuckle

Lonicera morrowii

Summary ⁵

Lonicera morrowii, the Morrow's honeysuckle, is a deciduous honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Japan, Korea, and Northeast China. It is a shrub, reaching a height of 2–2.5 m, with oblong leaves 4–6 cm long. It leafs out quite early in the spring, and in North America is commonly the first deciduous shrub with foliage in March. The flowers are white to pale yellow, and the fruit is a dark red berry 7–8 mm diameter containing numerous seeds. The berries, while eaten frequently by birds, are considered poisonous to humans. It is colloquially called "bush honeysuckle" in the United States, and is considered an invasive species.

Short Description ⁶

Multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub, growing to 2.5 m (8 ft) tall. It has opposite branched stems and simple, opposite leaves 2.5-6 cm long (1-2.4 in). The leaves are gray-green with soft hairs underneath. The shrub flowers from May through June. Flowers are small, white with yellow anthers, tubular, paired, and fragrant. The fruits are small red berries that grow in pairs.

Source: EwA Invasive Pocket Fieldguide | © Earthwise Aware

Invasiveness ⁷

Morrow's honeysuckle is confirmed as a highly invasive species over the northeastern third of the United States. Morrow's honeysuckle thrives at the edges of forests, roads, or other natural or man-made barriers, but is not limited to them, and is found in both mature and disturbed forests. In some areas, Morrow's honeysuckle is the dominant plant species, especially in areas of disturbed ecological succession. It is suspected that Lonicera morrowii is allelopathic, and may capitalize on disturbed ecological succession by establishing itself and then preventing the growth of plants underneath it. With a sufficiently established thicket of honeysuckle, even other shade-tolerant, invasive species, such as fortune's spindle have difficulty growing underneath it, whether due to its suspected allelopathic activity or through soil depletion.

Due to its early leafing, Morrow's honeysuckle is particularly harmful to spring ephemerals, flowers that evolved to bloom briefly in the spring before other plants leafed out.

Many cedar waxwings' wax spots in the eastern United States have taken on an unusual orange hue in the last 35 years, a phenomenon that has been attributed to Lonicera morrowii. The chemical involved in this color change is rhodoxanthin, a red dye found in the berries of Morrow's honeysuckle.

Effects on flora and fauna

Due to its early leafing, Morrow's honeysuckle is particularly harmful to spring ephemerals, flowers that evolved to bloom briefly in the spring before other plants leafed out.

🚧 Control Methods (EwA Content Development in Progress) ⁶

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Sources and Credits

(c) Claire O'Neill, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Claire O'Neill, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/120197537
(c) Claire O'Neill, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Claire O'Neill, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84328471
(c) ssen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by ssen, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/31701307
(c) Daniel Onea, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Daniel Onea, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28345755
(c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_morrowii
(c) Claire O'Neill, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Adapted by Claire O'Neill from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_morrowii

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