Flora of New Zealand Series

Deciduous or evergreen, climbing or erect shrubs. Stems hollow or with brown or white pith. Winter buds with 2 or several outer scales. Lvs entire, rarely lobed, usually exstipulate, rarely stipulate. Fls generally fragrant, either in axillary pedunculate pairs and each pair with 2 bracts and 4 bracteoles, or in sessile axillary whorls or terminal heads. Calyx small or minute, 5-toothed. Corolla 5-lobed, nearly regular or ± irregular, sometimes bilabiate; tube short or long, sometimes gibbous. Stamens 5, included or exserted. Ovary 2-3-(5)-celled, adjacent walls in paired fls sometimes united. Styles slender; stigma capitate. Fr. a few- or sometimes many-seeded, berry.

c. 200 spp., N. temperate regions. Naturalised spp. 3 and 1 hybrid.

Fls of the 3 climbing spp. are illustrated in Fig. 48.

In addition to those described, a number of spp. of honeysuckle are cultivated in N.Z.; 3 of these are common and long-persistent in old abandoned or neglected gardens. L. hildebrandiana Collet et Hemsley, Burmese honeysuckle, is a glossy-leaved climber and is the largest-flowered sp. in the genus, with white to yellow corollas, a tube 9-12 cm long, and a 2-lipped limb 4-6 cm diam. L. standishii Jacques is a deciduous or semi-evergreen, erect, glabrous or hairy shrub with arching branches, broad-ovate lvs, and very fragrant irregular white fls in winter. L. tatarica L. is an erect, deciduous shrub with a white or pink, 2-lipped corolla, and is mainly grown in eastern parts of the South Id.

Fig. 48. Fls of Lonicera. A L. × americana; B L. japonica; C L. periclymenum. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X57]