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Diervilla sessilifolia
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
The Normanby Charitable Trust
Credits
Tom Christian & David Purvis (2025)
Recommended citation
Christian, T. & Purvis, D. (2025), 'Diervilla sessilifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Southern Bush Honeysuckle
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
Thicket-forming shrub to 1.5 m × 1.5 m, much like D. lonicera but differing in its quadrangular stems, flushed red when young, hairy at the nodes. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, 6–18 cm × 2.5–7.5 cm, apex tapering, margins entire, more or less sessile, midrib with hairs beneath. Cymes several-flowered in a dense cluster. Flowers sulphur-yellow, turning dull with age, to 1.5 cm long. Fruits not persisting as long as in D. lonicera. (Bean 1981; Cullen et al. 2011).
Distribution United States Southern Appalachians, from North Carolina and Tennessee south to northern South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
Habitat The most common species in the southern Appalachians, where it is commonly found on high-elevation balds, roadsides, and in other rocky places. It is occasionally found at lower elevations in cool habitat types, such as along watercourses and shorelines.
USDA Hardiness Zone 5b
RHS Hardiness Rating H6
For a general discussion see the genus article.
'Butterfly'
Hatch describes this cultivar as being generally more lustrous than the type, with flowers of a darker and richer yellow, and with darker green leaves that can appear tinged purple in cold weather (Hatch 2017). This cultivar was crossed with Weigela florida in the early 2000s in an attempt to create garden-worthy intergeneric hybrids, but the resulting plants lacked vigour in trials and were never introduced (Touchell et al. 2006).
'LPDC Podaras'
Synonyms / alternative names
Diervilla sessilifolia COOL SPLASH
This selection arose from a chance seedling and has cream-white margined leaves with a dark grey-green centre. It grows from c. 0.7–1.3 m tall and broad (Dirr 2009). An example at Scampston Hall, Yorkshire, UK, is reverting freely, but the combination of variegated and non-variegated shoots still manages to be effective (pers. obs.).
