252 CAPRIFOLIACEAE 



CAPRIFOLIACEAE 

 The Honeysuckle Family 



The honeysuckle family includes shrubs, vines, and a few 

 small trees with opposite, simple, or pinnately compound leaves 

 without stipules. The perfect flowers may be regular or ir- 

 regular. The calyx is 3- to 5-lobed or, if tubular, ends in 3 

 to 5 teeth, and the corolla has 5 petals that are more or less 

 united and it is sometimes 2-lipped at the apex. There are 

 5 stamens, and the inferior ovary, which is 1- to 6-celled, 

 develops into a berry, drupe or capsule. 



There are some 400 species in this family, divided into about 

 10 genera, which are for the most part native in the northern 

 hemisphere, with a few in South America and Australia. Many 

 species are in cultivation as ornamentals, a few species are 

 important as sources of drugs, and some species furnish fruit 

 used as food. The following shrubs and vines occur as natives 

 in Illinois. 



Key to the Shrubby Genera 



Leaves compound Sambucus, p. 252 



Leaves simple. 



Leaf margins definitely toothed. 



Branchlets with finely hairy lines running downward from 



the leaf bases or leaf-scars Diervilla, p. 272 



Branchlets smooth or, if pubescent, the pubescence not 



arranged in lines Viburnum, p. 255 



Leaves with entire or nearly entire margins. 



Vines or at most seraierect shrubs Lonicera, p. 268 



Low, spreading shrubs Symphoricarpos, p. 265 



SAMBUCUS (Tournefort) Linnaeus 

 The Elders 



The elders are shrubs or trees with opposite, odd-pinnately 

 compound leaves and small, whitish flowers borne in compound 

 cymes. The 5 calyx lobes are minute and the 5-lobed corolla 

 is wheel or saucer shaped. Five stamens are inserted at the 

 base of the corolla, and the 3- to 5-celled ovary develops into 

 a berry-like drupe, each cell of which contains one seed. 



The elders are widely distributed and number some 25 species, 

 of which about 12 occur in North America. Two are native in 

 Illinois. 



