Caprifoliaceae
Shrubs or small trees, sometimes lianoid. Stems with prominent pith. Lvs opposite, usually simple, sometimes pinnate, usually exstipulate. Infl. usually cymose. Fls usually ⚥, very rarely unisexual, regular or irregular. Calyx adnate to ovary; lobes 4-5, small. Corolla gamopetalous; lobes 4-5, imbricate, regular or bilabiate, tubular, or rotate with prominent lobes. Stamens 4-5, epipetalous, free, alternating with corolla lobes. Ovary inferior, 2-5-(8)-celled. Ovules 1-many per cell; placentation axile. Style usually 1, sometimes 0. Fr. usually indehiscent, sometimes dehiscent, either a fleshy berry or drupe, or dry and capsular or achenial. Endosperm fleshy.
Key
12 genera, 400-450 spp., mainly N. temperate.
The spp. of the indigenous genus Alseuosmia A. Cunn. were described under this family by Allan (1961). They are now referred to a separate family, Alseuosmiaceae.
The Caprifoliaceae is well represented in cultivation in N.Z. especially in colder parts of the country. In addition to the genera described below the following 3 are very commonly grown; each has spp. which long persist in old gardens and sometimes appear to be wild: Abelia R. Br. is a small genus of shrubs with a ± regular, tubular to campanulate corolla and a prominently accrescent calyx surrounding the achenial fr.; in N.Z. it is most commonly represented by the evergreen hybrid A. × grandiflora Rehder, a very popular hedge plant. Kolkwitzia Graebner must have been introduced to N.Z. shortly after it was first brought from China in 1901 and grown in Europe and N. America, because there are many long-abandoned or neglected gardens in which the single sp., K. amabilis Graebner, is present; this is a widely cultivated deciduous shrub with peeling bark, a campanulate, pink, slightly irregular corolla, and a prominently bristly, achenial fr. Weigela Thunb. is the best-known of the 3 and there are a number of cvs grown, most or all of which belong to W. florida (Bunge) A. DC. or are hybrids of it; these deciduous shrubs have white, pink, to crimson, irregular, funnelform corollas, and capsular frs.
