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(Last Modified On 5/14/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/14/2013)
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Genus
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Lonicera L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. P1. 173. 1753.
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Note
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TYPE: L. caprifolium L.
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Description
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Vines, shrubs, or small trees, mostly pubescent with simple, several-celled hairs, some with transparent terminal glands which often dry reddish-brown; branches fistulose or solid. Leaves evergreen or deciduous, simple, mostly entire, paired, some pairs sometimes connate-perfoliate, glabrate or pubescent, sometimes glaucous beneath, membranaceous, coriaceous, or succulent, petiolate, mostly estipulate, bud scales often present. Inflorescences mostly numerous, pedunculate,
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Habit
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Vines, shrubs, or small trees
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Description
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2-flowered cymes (dichasia) and bracteate and bracteolate or in sessile verticels of 3-flowered dichasia, the bracts sometimes foliaceous, the bracteoles sometimes connate and enveloping the ovary; pedicels short of wanting. Flowers fragrant, often showy, bisexual, 5-merous;. calyx-tube elliptical or rotund, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes glaucous, the lobes small or obsolete; corolla variously colored, sometimes fading to a different color, rarely regular, mostly strongly 2-lipped and slightly ventricose or variously saccate, gibbous, or spurred, glabrous or pubescent and with 1-5 nectaries along the inside of the tube, the lobes quin- cunical in bud; stamens 5, subequal, the filaments slender, the posterior 3 inserted in the corolla tube slightly above the anterior 2, the anthers oval to oblong or narrowly elliptical, straight in bud but in flower sometimes recurving at both ends, dorsifixed and versatile, mostly exserted, the 4 locules sometimes partly confluent, dehiscing introrsely by longitudinal lateral slits; the ovary inferior, sometimes connate with that of the adjacent flower, 2-3(-5)-loculed, the ovules 3-8 per locule, pendulous from the top of the ovary, anatropous, the style elongate, slender, glabrous or pubescent, the stigma small, indistinctly-lobed. Fruit a juicy or fleshy few-seeded berry, often shiny and bright-colored, rarely enveloped by accrescent bracteoles, mostly surmounted by the persistent calyx lobes; the seeds compressed, ovoid with smooth or granular testa, the endosperm fleshy, the embryo terete, minute, straight or slightly curved, the cotyledons terete.
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Distribution
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A genus of nearly 200 species, mostly located in north temperate regions.
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Note
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The most unspecialised species, which grow in central Asia, are alpine shrubs with nearly regular, 5-parted corollas, and short styles, and are hardly distinguishable from the mainly North American genus Symphoricarpos. From such unspecialised groups, Lonicera ranges to festooning vines with strongly 2-lipped corollas and long-exserted styles, as in the single species which is naturalised in Panama. Many species are cultivated in temperate regions for the fragrance of their showy flowers and their attractive foliage. The fruits also are important foods for wildlife. The Panamanian species is of mixed benefit; an attractive orna- mental, it is also a persistent weed of mountain gardens and pastures.
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Reference
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Rehder, A. 1903. Synopsis of the genus Lonicera. Annual Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. 14: 27-232.
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