Bearberry honeysuckle, also known as bear-berry, fly honeysuckle, 

 inkberry, and skunkberry, is a freely branching shrub which is usu- 

 ally erect but sometimes has reclining stems and is more or less 

 vinelike. It is usually 3 to 6 feet high, but occasionally (especially 

 in the Pacific coastal form called by some botanists variety ledebourii) 

 attains a height of 9 feet. The glossy, dark, almost black fruits, with 

 their unpleasant taste, give rise to the common names of inkberry 

 and skunkberry. The specific name involucrata refers to the bracts 

 (involucre) at the base of the flowers, which enlarge, turn red, and 

 become very conspicuous as the fruit develops. 



Bearberry honeysuckle is probably the best known and the com- 

 monest of the western honeysuckles. It is widely distributed, rang- 

 ing from New Brunswick to Alaska, California, Mexico, and the 

 shores of Lake Superior. In the Northwest it is found at elevations 

 up to about 6,500 or 7,000 feet ; in Colorado it may grow at altitudes 

 up to 9,000 feet in the lodgepole pine and spruce belts. Moist situa- 

 tions, such as areas contiguous to springs, creek banks, tidelands, and 

 the like, are its favorite haunts. Its common plant associates are 

 willows and alders. 



In a few localities, such as in southwestern Montana, southern 

 Idaho, and northern Utah, bearberry honeysuckle is reputed to be 

 fair or fairly good sheep browse, and is also slightly cropped by 

 cattle. Generally, however, it is either poor forage for sheep or 

 worthless for all classes of livestock. Near Yellowstone National 

 Park in Montana elk are reported to graze the young shoots in 

 winter. 



Stockmen occasionally report bearberry honeysuckle as poisonous 

 to livestock, especially to cattle, but there is no experimental evi- 

 dence to support this belief. This species is known to contain 

 saponin, a toxic alkaloid widely distributed in the vegetable king- 

 dom. It seems doubtful, however, that bearberry honeysuckle con- 

 tains sufficient saponin to endanger livestock on the range. The 

 U. S. Dispensatory, 1 on the authority of "Merat and De Lens", states 

 that "the fruit of all the species of Lonicera is said to be emetic and 

 cathartic." 



The lustrous purple-black fruits, with their conspicuous red bracts, 

 give this species of honeysuckle some value as a cultivated orna- 

 mental shrub, and several horticultural varieties of it have been 

 developed. 



A larger form, Ledebour honeysuckle (L. ledebourii, syns. Distegia 

 ledebourii, Xylosteon ledebourti, and L. involucmta ledeltoumi), 

 typical of the Pacific coastal region, is regarded as a synonym of 

 fiearberry honeysuckle by some botanists and as a variety of it by 

 others. 



1 Wood, H. C., Remington, J. P., and Sadtler, S. P., assisted by Lyons, A. B., and Wood, 



H C Jr THE DISPENSATORY OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, BY DR. GEO. B. AVOOD 



AND DR. FRANKLIN BACHE. Ed. 19, thoroughly rev. and largely rewritten . . . 1,947 pp. 

 Philadelphia and London, 1907. 



