Lonicera morrowii A. Gray

A vigorous, deciduous shrub 8 ft or more high, of loose, spreading habit; branchlets hollow; young shoots grey with down. Leaves oval or ovate, 1 to 21⁄2 in. long, half as wide, rounded or tapering at the base, rounded or with a short slender point at the apex, downy and dull green above, greyish and woolly beneath; stalk 1⁄6 in. long. Flowers creamy white changing to yellow with age, produced in pairs from the middle or upper leaf-axils of short branchlets, in May and June. Corolla downy, two-lipped, with a slender tube 1⁄4 in. long, the deep spoon-shaped lobes 1⁄2 in. long, spreading; style hairy; flower-stalk up to 3⁄5 in. long; bracts hairy on the margins. Fruits dark red, rarely yellow.

Native of Japan; allied to L. xylosteum, from which it differs in having a glabrous, not glandular, ovary. It is useful for furnishing semi-wild parts of the garden.

L. × bella Zab. – Hybrids between L. morrowii and L. tatarica raised in the Münden Botanic Garden from seeds of L. morrowii received from the St Petersburg Botanic Garden before 1889. They show the influence of L. tatarica in their more pointed almost glabrous leaves and larger mostly pink or red flowers. Several of the seedlings were given distinguishing names, including ‘Candida’ with white flowers and ‘Atrorosea’, in which the flowers are dark rose with a lighter edge.