Lonicera rupicola Hook. f. & Thorns.

A very dense bush forming a rounded mass of interlacing branches 6 to 8 ft high; branchlets slightly downy or glabrous when young; bark peeling off in thin strips the second year. Leaves often in threes, oblong or ovate, rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, blunt at the apex, 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, about half as wide; dull green and glabrous above, paler and downy beneath, often becoming glabrous; stalk 1⁄8 in. or less long. Flowers produced in May and June in pairs from the shoots of the current year, often six at one joint, fragrant; corolla pale pink, 1⁄2 in. across, the tube 1⁄4 in. long, downy on both sides; lobes rounded-ovate, equal. Calyx-lobes narrow-oblong, downy; style and flower-stalk very short.

Native of the Himalaya; long cultivated at Kew. It is closely allied to L. thibetica, but is distinguished by the dull green, blunt-ended leaves not being white-felted beneath. These two species differ from all other cultivated honeysuckles in their globose shape and impenetrable mass of branches. It is an interesting species, but does not blossom freely.