Creature Feature: Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)
By Elizabeth Cychosz, CG Science Staff
With the onset of spring, the honeysuckles are now in bloom across Athens. For those lucky enough to have had one growing near their childhood home, the term “honeysuckle” calls to memory crawling through the woods or clamoring across a field to reach its juicy flowers for a mid-day refreshment.
Brought to North America at the turn of the twentieth century for ornamental usage and soil erosion control, Amur honeysuckle, as a non-native plant, now pervades the United States landscape from New York to Nebraska. Both pollination by bees and the spread of its seeds by birds contribute to its prevalence.
Few environmental factors restrict its growth: it thrives in full sun or full shade and all types of soil or weather. Not even pollution can stop its spread. That tenacity is not always good, however; it can easily crowd out and smother native plants.
- Amur honeysuckle, even though a bush plant, can reach 30 feet in height.
- Its tan bark is stringy and can easily pulled of the stem.
- Three formations decorate its stem. Tiny, mildly poisonous red berries form in late summer and survive through the winter. Its leaves are dark green with pale fuzzy undersides and their 2-3 inch diameter ends in a sharp point. Tubular, 5-part flowers bloom in late spring, first white and then slowly yellowing with age.
- Amur honeysuckle can live in nearly every environment the Eastern and Midwestern United States has to offer.