CAPRIFOLIACEAE 



HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY 



SMOOTH-LEAF HONEYSUCKLE 



Lonicera dioica L. 



The Honeysuckle family contains some of our most highly 

 prized ornamental shrubs and vines but otherwise is not of 

 much economic importance. Climbing Honeysuckles are exten- 

 sively used for cov- 

 ering trellises and 

 for other ornamental 

 purposes, and in 

 most cases foreign 

 species are prefer- 

 red to the native. 



The Smooth-leaf 

 Honeysuckle is 

 found in moist and 

 dry woods and in bogs from Maine 

 to Manitoba, south to North Caro- 

 lina and Missouri. It is a smooth 

 twining shrub with stems 3-10 feet 

 long. The leaves have a thin waxy 

 coat on the lower surface. The bases 

 of the uppermost and wider leaves 

 are grown together but those lower 

 and narrower are merely sessile or 

 short petioled. 



The flowers are produced in termi- 

 nal clusters in May and June. Two 

 color forms are recognized; one is 



yellowish green usually tinged with purple, and the other, much 

 more common in Illinois, is red. The calyx is short, tubular and 

 slightly 5-toothed. The tubular corolla, with 5 inserted stamens, 

 is swollen on i side at the base, and at the other end 2-lipped 

 and 5-lobed. The pistil consists of a 2 or 3-celled ovary, a slender 

 style and an unlobed stigma. Stamens, style and the inner sur- 

 face of the corolla tube are hairy. The fruit is a red few-seeded 

 berry. 



Resembling the Smooth-leaf Honeysuckle but covered with a 

 whitish bloom and having larger flowers is SuUivant's Honeysuckle, 

 Lonicera Siillivantii Gray, which may be found blooming from April 

 to September in low grounds or on hillsides. The tube ot the pale 

 yellow flowers is about one-half inch long, slightly exceeding the limb, 

 and the yellow fruit is one-quarter inch in diameter. 



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