Lonicera syringantha Maxim.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Lonicera syringantha' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lonicera/lonicera-syringantha/). Accessed 2025-01-16.

Genus

Lonicera

Infraspecifics

var. wolfii

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

calyx: (pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
corolla: The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
style: Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
Tibet: Traditional English name for the formerly independent state known to its people as Bod now the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The name Xizang is used in lists of Chinese provinces.
apex: (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
axillary: Situated in an axil.
glabrous: Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glaucous: Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
ovate: Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Lonicera syringantha' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lonicera/lonicera-syringantha/). Accessed 2025-01-16.

The soft lilac flowers of Lonicera syringantha are also lilac-scented, as the epithet suggests. Marly Farm, Blandain, Belgium. 1 May 2017. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

A deciduous shrub of graceful, spreading habit, up to 6 ft high; young shoots slender, quite glabrous. Leaves in pairs or threes, oblong or inclined to ovate, the base rounded or slightly heart-shaped, the apex bluntish or broad-pointed, 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, 3⁄16 to 3⁄8 in. wide, dull rather glaucous green, quite glabrous; stalk 1⁄12 in. long. Flowers in axillary pairs, produced on a slender stalk 1⁄4 in. long during May and June from the lower and middle joints of the young shoots, soft lilac in colour, lilac-scented. Corolla-tube 1⁄2 in. long, slender, cylindrical, glabrous outside, hairy within; the flower is 1⁄2 in. across the rounded-ovate lobes. Calyx-lobes lance-shaped, glabrous. Style quite short. Fruits red. Bot. Mag., t. 7989.

Native of China and Tibet; introduced about 1890. A very elegant and pleasing shrub, with delicately coloured and charmingly fragrant flowers, which are not always abundantly borne. It is allied to L. thibetica and L. tomentella, differing in the quite glabrous leaves.

Young stems and leaves of Lonicera syringantha. This species is sometimes considered as a subspecies of Lonicera rupicola. Marly Farm, Blandain, Belgium. 1 May 2017. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

The fragant pale pink flowers of Lonicera syringantha gave it the vernacular name of lilac-flowered honeysuckle. Marly Farm, Blandain, Belgium. 7 June 2020. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

The fruits of Lonicera syringantha resemble rose hips; they are green-orange at first, turning red at maturity. Marly Farm, Blandain, Belgium. 7 June 2020. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

The fruits of Lonicera syringantha are green-orange at first, turning red at maturity. Marly farm, Blandain, Belgium. 7 June 2020. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

A beautiful red mature fruit of Lonicera syringantha. Marly Farm, Blandain, Belgium. 7 June 2020. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

var. wolfii Rehd

Of lower, more spreading habit. Leaves longer and relatively narrower; calyx-teeth ciliate, connate at the base; flowers deeper pink. Described from a plant introduced from Central China by the nursery firm of Kesselring and Regel, late in the 19th century. Some of the plants grown under this name in British gardens scarcely differ from typical L. syringantha.

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