Japanese Honeysuckle (TVA, White's Creek Small Wild Area, Plants)

Japanese Honeysuckle

Lonicera japonica

Summary ³

The Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica; Suikazura スイカズラ／吸い葛 in Japanese; Jinyinhua in Chinese; 忍冬 in Chinese and Japanese) is a species of honeysuckle native to eastern Asia including China, Japan and Korea. It is a twining vine able to climb up to 10 metres (33 ft) high or more in trees, with opposite, simple oval leaves 3–8 centimetres (1.2–3.1 in) long and 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.2 in) broad. The flowers are double-tongued, opening white and fading to yellow, and sweetly vanilla...

Biology and spread ⁴

Growth and spread of Japanese honeysuckle is through vegetative (plant growth) and sexual (seed) means. It produces long vegetative runners that develop roots where stem and leaf junctions (nodes) come in contact with moist soil. Underground stems (rhizomes) help to establish and spread the plant locally. Long distance dispersal is by birds and other wildlife that readily consume the fruits and defecate the seeds at various distances from the parent plant.

Description and biology ⁵

Plant: perennial, deciduous to semi-evergreen twining vine; stems are pubescent and reddish brown to light brown.
Leaves: paired (opposite), ovate to oblong-ovate, about 1-3 in. long by ½-1½ in. wide, entire-margined except for young leaves which are often deeply toothed.
Flowers, fruits and seeds: flowers are bi-lobed, white turning yellow, highly fragrant and with nectar, produced in June; fruits are black, about ¼ in. diameter, paired, produced in the fall.
Spreads: by seed that is dispersed by birds.
Look-alikes: native trumpet honeysuckle which has red or yellow, long tubular flowers.

Ecological threat in the united states ⁶

In North America, Japanese honeysuckle has few natural enemies which allows it to spread widely and out-compete native plant species. Its evergreen to semi-evergreen nature gives it an added advantage over native species in many areas. Shrubs and young trees can be killed by girdling when vines twist tightly around stems and trunks, cutting off the flow of water through the plant. Dense growths of honeysuckle covering vegetation can gradually kill plants by blocking sunlight from reaching their leaves. Vigorous root competition also helps Japanese honeysuckle spread and displace neighboring native vegetation.

History in the united states ⁷

Japanese honeysuckle was introduced to the U.S. in the early to mid-1800's as an ornamental plant, for erosion control, and for wildlife forage and cover. Its highly fragrant flowers provide a tiny drop of honey-flavored nectar enjoyed by children.

Sources and Credits

(c) CameliaTWU (away for a while), some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/40999618@N05/5222058246
(c) MomentsForZen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/8181283951/
Adapted by Jonathan (JC) Carpenter from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_japonica
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948691
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22734001
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948687
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948690

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