Lonicera pyrenaica L.

A deciduous shrub 2 to 5 ft high, branches erect; free from down in all its parts. Leaves obovate to oblanceolate, tapered to a stalkless base, abruptly pointed, 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. wide, glaucous, especially beneath. Flowers produced during May and June in pairs from the terminal leaf-axils of short branchlets or the lower leaf-axils of stronger ones, each pair subtended by two rather sickle-shaped bracts 1⁄4 in. long, and borne on a stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Corolla rosy-tinted white, 5⁄8 in. in diameter; the tube scarcely as much long, swollen on one side at the base; the lobes roundish ovate, spreading. Berries red, globose, 1⁄4 in. diameter; each pair united only at the base. Bot. Mag., t. 7774.

Native of the eastern Pyrenees and the Balearic Isles; introduced, according to Aiton, in 1739. A very pretty shrub, perhaps the most pleasing in flower of all the dwarf bush honeysuckles. There is a specimen about 5 ft high at Kew on the wall of the North Gallery.

L. pyrenaica received an Award of Merit on 22 May 1928, when shown by Messrs Marchant.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The distribution given in the first printing is incomplete. This species occurs throughout the Pyrenees, in the mountains of north-east Spain, and in the Balearic Islands.