268 CAPRIFOLIACEAE 



SYMPHORICARPOS OCCIDENTALIS Hooker 



Wolfberry 



The Wolfberry, fig. 71, is an erect but low shrub 1 to 3 feet 

 high, which branches freely and also spreads freely from the 

 roots to form dense colonies. The young twigs are slender, 

 light reddish brown, and puberulent to glabrous. The bark 

 on older stems is gray and shredded. The opposite, ovate 

 leaves are rather thick, entire or more or less definitely and 

 roundly lobed on the margins, 1 to 4 inches long by ^ to 3 

 inches wide, acute or rounded or mucronate at the apex, and 

 rounded or narrowed at the base. The surface is dark dull 

 green and sparingly pubescent above and pale bluish green and 

 thinly pubescent, at least on the veins, below. The petiole is 

 distinct, commonly longer than in the preceding species, and 

 pubescent. 



The pinkish flowers are sessile in dense axillary and terminal 

 spikes, which are in blossom in June and early July. The fruit 

 is a dull white berry, which soon becomes blackish and dis- 

 colored, and which contains 2 straw-colored, smooth, flattish 

 seeds less than ^4 i^ich long. 



Distribution. — The Wolfberry, a shrub of dry soils in 

 prairie and wooded regions, ranges from Michigan to British 

 Columbia and south to Illinois, Kansas and Colorado. In Illi- 

 nois, it is a rare shrub limited in occurrence to the extreme 

 north and recorded authoritatively only from Cook, Hancock, 

 Du Page, Jo Daviess, McHenry and Carroll counties. 



LONICERA Linnaeus 

 The Honeysuckles 



Most of the honeysuckles are shrubs or climbing vines with 

 opposite, simple leaves and usually irregular flowers borne in 

 interrupted spikes or heads in the axils of leaves. There are 

 5 small calyx lobes, and the 5 petals are united into a funnel- 

 shaped or trumpet-shaped corolla, which is either 5-lobed or 

 more or less 2-lipped. The slender filaments of the 5 stamens 

 are adnate to the corolla. The ovary is 2- to 3-celled and 

 develops into a 2- to 3-celled, fleshy berry that contains few 

 seeds. 



There are well over 150 species of honeysuckles, natives for 



