TORREYA 



Vol. 19 No. 3 



March, igig 



THE JAPANESE HONEYSUCKLE IN THE EASTERN 

 UNITED STATES. 



By E. F. Andrews 



The rapidity with which introduced weeds can multiply and 

 take possession of new territory has been repeatedly demon- 

 strated by such examples as the Russian thistle {Salsola pestifer) , 

 bitterweed (Heleniuni tenuifolium) and the Sida {S. Spinosa and 

 S. rhombifolia) — plants which have become such common pests 

 in certain parts of our country. As a general thing these un- 

 welcome intruders belong to the class of herbaceous annuals and 

 biennials, whose frequent succession of new generations, with 

 the opportunities for seed production and distribution which 

 this affords, makes them much more efficient travelers than the 

 slower-growing woody shrubs and vines. 



A notable exception to this rule, however, is furnished by the 

 Japan honeysuckle {Lonicera japonica), an exotic from Asia, 

 which I remember to have known in my youth only as a care- 

 fully cultivated and highly prized ornamental plant, twining 

 about the piazzas of the old plantation mansions and covering 

 the "summer houses" — pergolas, they would be called now — in 

 old-fashioned southern gardens. The flowers are very fragrant 

 and showy, and it was a profuse bloomer under cultivation, but 

 since it has run wild and taken on the weedy habit, it has to a 

 large extent given up flowering, and propagates chiefly by vege- 

 tative means. Wherever a shoot touches the ground it strikes 

 root and then sends forth a numerous progeny of young shoots 

 to repeat the process. The prostrate stems and those in con- 

 tact with the soil, even on high banks and ledges, where there 



[No. 2, Vol. 19 of ToRREYA, Comprising pp. 21-36, was issued 19 March, 1919I 



37 



