Lonicera angustifolia
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Lonicera angustifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
- Lonicera acuminata
- Lonicera alberti
- Lonicera alpigena
- Lonicera altmannii
- Lonicera × americana
- Lonicera × brownii
- Lonicera caerulea
- Lonicera caprifolium
- Lonicera caucasica
- Lonicera chaetocarpa
- Lonicera chrysantha
- Lonicera ciliosa
- Lonicera dioica
- Lonicera etrusca
- Lonicera ferdinandi
- Lonicera flava
- Lonicera fragrantissima
- Lonicera giraldii
- Lonicera griffithii
- Lonicera gynochlamydea
- Lonicera × heckrottii
- Lonicera henryi
- Lonicera hildebrandiana
- Lonicera hirsuta
- Lonicera hispida
- Lonicera iberica
- Lonicera implexa
- Lonicera involucrata
- Lonicera japonica
- Lonicera korolkowii
- Lonicera ligustrina
- Lonicera maackii
- Lonicera maximowiczii
- Lonicera microphylla
- Lonicera morrowii
- Lonicera nervosa
- Lonicera nigra
- Lonicera periclymenum
- Lonicera purpurascens
- Lonicera × purpusii
- Lonicera pyrenaica
- Lonicera quinquelocularis
- Lonicera reticulata
- Lonicera rupicola
- Lonicera ruprechtiana
- Lonicera sempervirens
- Lonicera setifera
- Lonicera similis
- Lonicera splendida
- Lonicera tangutica
- Lonicera tatarica
- Lonicera × tellmanniana
- Lonicera tomentella
- Lonicera tragophylla
- Lonicera trichosantha
- Lonicera webbiana
- Lonicera xylosteum
- Lonicera yunnanensis
A deciduous shrub 8 to 10 ft high, of rounded elegant habit, the outer branches pendulous. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, rounded or tapering at the base, slender pointed, 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. wide, bright green and glabrous above except at first, paler and slightly downy beneath, especially on the midrib; stalk 1⁄12 in. or less long, woolly. Flowers pinkish white, produced in May and June in pairs from the lower leaf-axils of the young branchlets, each pair on a slender drooping stalk 1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in. long. Corolla tubular, the tube 1⁄3 in. long, the lobes equal, about one-third as long as the tube. Style quite short and hidden. Berries red, edible; each pair united.
Native of the Himalaya; introduced by Sir Joseph Hooker about 1849. If it flowered more freely it would be an attractive shrub, as it is perfectly hardy and of elegant growth; its flowers are fragrant.
It is allied to L. myrtillus, but differs in its longer, differently shaped leaves and drooping peduncles.
var. myrtillus (Hook.f. & Thomson) Q.E.Yang, Landrein, Borosova & Osborne
Synonyms
Lonicera myrtillus Hook.f. & Thomsson
Editorial Note
The text below is adapted from Bean, who treated this variety at species rank as Lonicera myrtillus.
A deciduous shrub of dense, compact, rounded habit, 3 or 4 ft high; shoots downy when quite young. Leaves oval or ovate, 1⁄3 to 1 in. long, about 1⁄4 in. wide, dark green above, rather glaucous beneath, glabrous on both surfaces, margins decurved. Flowers pinkish white, fragrant, borne in very shortly stalked pairs; corolla between tubular and bell-shaped, 1⁄4 in. long, glabrous outside, hairy at the mouth inside; lobes equal, spreading; style much shorter than the tube, glabrous; bracts linear, 1⁄6 to 1⁄4 in. long. Fruits orange-red, 1⁄4 in. wide.
Native of the Himalaya and Afghanistan. It forms a neat, pleasing bush, but our climate is too dull for it to flower sufficiently freely to produce any effect. It is one of the bush honeysuckles which are distinguished by a very short style and a tubular, regularly lobed corolla, hairy at the mouth inside. From the others of this group here mentioned it is distinguished by its stiff branches and small leaves, and from all except L. angustifolia by the two-celled ovary. Blossoms in May.
Plants with broader, leaf-like bracts and longer flower stalks were treated as Lonicera myrtillus var. depressa Rehder (note that the varietal name was not based on Lonicera depressa Royle ex. G.Nicholson (= Lonicera obovata Royle ex. Hook.f. & Thomson), which Bean incorrectly cites in synonymy).