Common Name: Honeysuckle
Description: Climbers or scrambling shrubs, often pubescent; deciduous or evergreen.
Leaves opposite, margins entire or rarely lobed, especially in some juvenile growth; with a ridge joining the opposite leaf bases, distinct stipules rarely present.
Flowers borne in pairs at the end of short lateral shoots found in the axils of upper leaves; flowers surrounded by several pairs of bracts. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla with a short or slender and often swollen tube, 2-lipped or ± equally 5-lobed. Stamens 5, epipetalous, exserted. Ovary inferior, usually 2- or 3-locular; style slender, stigma capitate.
Fruit a berry, few- to many-seeded.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 158 species, widespread in Northern Hemisphere. Australia: 4 species (naturalized), all states except N.T., and Norfolk Is.
Text by G. J. Harden, Distribution and Occurence updated by Kerry Gibbons, 25 May 2023.
Taxon concept: Distribution and occurrence: Kew Plants of the World Online; Australian Plant Census [both accessed 11 Apr. 2023].
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | At least young stems pubescent; climber or scrambling shrub | Lonicera japonica |
| Stems glabrous; erect shrub | Lonicera fragrantissima |
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