Flora of New Zealand Series

honeysuckle

Deciduous climber; vegetative parts glabrous. Young shoots purple. Lvs sessile or shortly petiolate. Lamina 3-7 × 1.5-4 cm, ovate to elliptic or suborbicular, glaucous below, entire; base rounded to cordate or amplexicaul; apex rounded, sometimes mucronate; uppermost pair of lvs (immediately below peduncle) ± connate and amplexicaul, broad-ovate. Fls fragrant; infl. of (1)-2-3 terminal whorls; whorls with up to 15 fls; peduncles from < 0.3 mm to c. 3 cm long. Bracteoles broad-ovate or suborbicular, with or without glands, < ovaries. Calyx lobes 0.5-1.5 mm long, broadly triangular- ovate, sometimes glandular-ciliate. Corolla 4-5 cm long, rose and ± glandular outside, white, becoming yellow within; tube 2.5-3 cm long, narrow; limb 2-lipped, becoming reflexed. Ovaries separate; style > stamens, both exserted. Fr. c. 5 mm diam., globose, orange.

N.: Hutt Valley; S.: Fairlie (S. Canterbury), Manapouri (Southland).

S. Europe 1981

An occasional escape, wasteland, forest margins, plantations.

FL Nov-May.

This hybrid is very commonly cultivated, especially in the South Id. Fr. is produced only sparingly. The young shoots are generally crippled with aphis attack in summer. Despite its botanical name, honeysuckle is a hybrid between 2 S. European spp., L. caprifolium L. and L. etrusca Santi, which probably arose spontaneously. A collection from Hororata, Canterbury, differs in that the young shoots and lower surface of the lvs are hairy, and some bracteoles nearly equal the ovary. In these respects it more closely resembles L. etrusca.