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Tatarian honeysuckle

Lonicera tatarica

Summary 10

Lonicera tatarica is a species of honeysuckle known by the common name Tartarian honeysuckle. It is native to Siberia and other parts of eastern Asia, but it is probably better known in North America, where it is a widespread introduced species and noxious weed. This plant, one of several exotic bush honeysuckles present in North America, was introduced as an ornamental plant in 1752. It is known across the continent west to Alaska and California, where...

Conservation status 11

More info for the term: natural

Winter honeysuckle, Amur honeysuckle, Morrow's honeysuckle, Tatarian honeysuckle, and Bell's honeysuckle are ranked as severe threats by the Tennessee Exotic Pest Plant Council [156], and Amur honeysuckle, Morrow's honeysuckle, and Tatarian honeysuckle are ranked as severe threats by the Kentucky Exotic Pest Plant Council [85]. Morrow's honeysuckle is ranked highly invasive, Amur honeysuckle and Tatarian honeysuckle moderately invasive, and winter honeysuckle and Bell's honeysuckle occasionally invasive by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation [182].

U.S. Forest Service Region 8 (Southern Region) lists winter honeysuckle, Amur honeysuckle, Morrow's honeysuckle, and Tatarian honeysuckle as category 1 weeds (exotic plant species that are known to be invasive and persistent throughout all or most of their range within the Southern Region and that can spread into and persist in native plant communities and displace native plant species and therefore pose a demonstrable threat to the integrity of the natural plant communities in the Region). The introduction of category 1 species is prohibited on National Forest System Lands [171].

Morrow's honeysuckle, Tatarian honeysuckle, and Bell's honeysuckle are "high-priority" nonnative invasive plants of the Ottawa National Forest (MI) [170].

Description 12

More info for the terms: shrub, shrubs

The following descriptions of bush honeysuckles provide characteristics that may be relevant to fire ecology, and are not meant for identification. Keys for identification are available (e.g. [18,36,54,59,133,161,186,189,190,191]). Winter honeysuckle is a deciduous or semievergreen shrub, mainly 3.2 to 10 feet (1-3 m), occasionally to 15 feet (4.6 m) tall [36,37,127,133,191]. The crown is an erect but wide-spreading, irregularly rounded, tangled mass of slender recurved branches [37,127,133]. Leaves are 0.6 to 3.5 inches (1.5-9 cm) long and 0.4 to 1.8 inches (1-4.5 cm) wide [36,37,127,133,191]. Flowers are 0.4 to 0.5 inches (1-1.2 cm) long, borne in pairs on short peduncles [191]. Fruit is a berry, 0.25 to 0.4 inches (6.4-10 mm) in diameter [36,37,127,133], with seeds 0.05 to 0.08 inches (1.3-2  mm) long [133]. Winter honeysuckle. ©Univ. Connecticut Plant Database.
Amur honeysuckle is an upright, spreading, deciduous shrub, 12 to 20 feet (3.7-6.1 m) tall with hollow branches [36,37,54,131]. Leaves are 1.4 to 3.5 inches (3.5-9 cm) long and 0.5 to 1.5 inches (1.3-3.8 cm) wide [37,54,131]. Fruit is a 0.08 to 0.25 inch (2-6.4 mm) diameter berry [36,37]. Amur honeysuckle. © John M. Randall / The Nature Conservancy.
Morrow's honeysuckle is a deciduous shrub, 4.9 to 8 feet (1.5-2.4 m) tall and 6 to 10 feet (1.8-3 m) wide [37,152,161,175], "forming a broad, rounded, dense, tangled mound with foliage and branches to the ground" [37]. Leaves are 1 to 2.5 inches (2.5-6.4 cm) long and 0.5 to 1.25 inches (1.3-3.2 cm) wide [37,161]. The fruit is a 0.25 inch (6 mm) diameter berry [37]. Morrow's honeysuckle. © John M. Randall/The Nature Conservancy.
Tatarian honeysuckle is an upright deciduous shrub, 3.3 to 12 feet (1-3 m) tall and 10 feet (3 m) wide [18,37,54,59,93,155,157,161,176,191], often dense with fine branches [157]. Dirr [37] describes the Tatarian honeysuckle crown as "strongly multi-stemmed with the upper branches arching and the overall effect one of a dense, twiggy mass." Twigs are hollow [54], and 0.03 to 0.04 inches (0.8-1 mm) in diameter [157]. Bark has long, flat, thin scales and not much shredding [157], although older stems have shredding bark [59]. Leaves are 0.6 to 2.5 inches (1.5-6.4 cm) long and 0.2 to 1.5 inches (0.5-3.8 cm) wide [37,54,59,157,191]. Flowers are pedunculate and borne in sessile pairs in leaf axils [59,157,191]. Fruits are berries, 0.2 to 0.3 inch (4-8 mm) in diameter, borne singly or in pairs with the bases fused, with 3-6 seeds per fruit [37,59,157,191]. Seeds are about 0.1 inch (2.5-3 mm) long and 0.08 to 0.1 inch (2-2.5 mm) wide [59,157].   Tatarian honeysuckle. © John M. Randall/The Nature Conservancy.
European fly honeysuckle is a rounded deciduous shrub with spreading arching branches, 3.3 to 10 feet (1-3 m) tall, 10 to 12 feet (3-3.7 m) wide, with hollow twigs [18,37,54,177]. European fly honeysuckle. ©Univ. Connecticut Plant Database.

Bell's honeysuckle is an erect shrub, 4 to 10 feet (1.2-3 m) tall and often at least as wide as it is tall [25,37,133]. It has a round growth habit with spreading, somewhat arching branches [37]. Leaves are 1 to 3 inches (2.5-7.6 cm) long [25]. Fruits are 0.25 to nearly 0.5 inch (6.5-13 mm) diameter round berries [25,37], with 2 to 6 seeds per fruit [37].

Age of Bell's honeysuckle shrubs studied in southern Wisconsin ranged from 12 to 34 years, with a mean of 20.4 years [7].

By excavating numerous Bell's honeysuckle shrubs in Wisconsin, it was determined that most roots occurred at a depth of 0.98 to 5.9 inches (2.5-15 cm), and in many cases extended well beyond crown width [7].

Physiology: Barnes and Cottam [8] found no difference in photosynthetic response of Bell's honeysuckle shrubs originating from wet and dry sites, and subjected to shaded and exposed light conditions. Similarly, they detected no difference in photosynthetic response of shrubs from either site to induced water stress.

Ecological threat in the united states 13

Exotic bush honeysuckles can rapidly invade and overtake a site, forming a dense shrub layer that crowds and shades out native plant species. They alter habitats by decreasing light availability, by depleting soil moisture and nutrients, and possibly by releasing toxic chemicals that prevent other plant species from growing in the vicinity. Exotic bush honeysuckles may compete with native bush honeysuckles for pollinators, resulting in reduced seed set for native species. In addition, the fruits of exotic bush honeysuckles, while abundant and rich in carbohydrates, do not offer migrating birds the high-fat, nutrient-rich food sources needed for long flights, that are supplied by native plant species.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Charlie Hohn, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Charlie Hohn
  2. (c) psweet, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by psweet
  3. (c) nadaci, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by nadaci
  4. (c) Clare Salerno, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Clare Salerno
  5. (c) Valeria Pismerova, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Valeria Pismerova
  6. (c) Amy Lorenz, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Amy Lorenz
  7. (c) Tim Howard, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Tim Howard
  8. (c) Michael R. Curtis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Michael R. Curtis
  9. (c) benconnorbarrie, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
  10. Adapted by Kate Wagner from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_tatarica
  11. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24637073
  12. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24637079
  13. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948680

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