Lonicera morrowii

Native to Japan and South Korea. Introduced and naturalized in North America.

Deciduous woodland borders, savannas, thickets, fence rows, urban vacant lots, railroads, roadsides. Full sun to partial shade.

May to June

White, turning yellow

3′ to 10′

This is an erect, 3′ to 10′ tall, perennial shrub that rises from shallow roots. It sometimes forms dense thickets.

The branches are straight and hollow. They are light green and covered with soft, fine, short hairs when young. Older branches have shaggy, grayish-brown bark.

The leaves are opposite, untoothed, oval or oblong, and 1⅛″ to 2⅓″ long. They are bluish-green on the upper surface and downy on the underside.

The flowers occur in pairs arising from leaf axils. They are white but turn yellow with age.

The fruit is a red berry.

All native honeysuckles are vine-like, not shrubs, and have twining branches.

Tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) is also a non-native species. It has white or pink flowers that do not turn yellow with age. Its leaves are smooth, not downy.

A red dye in the fruit, rhodoxanthin, is responsible for an unusual orange hue in the wax spots of cedar waxwings in the last 35 years.

This plant is thought to be allelopathic, releasing a toxin in the soil that inhibits the growth of other species.