6. Lonicera
purpusii Rehder
Map 1426
Plants shrubs
1.5–2.5 m tall, the main stems erect or ascending, self-supporting. Twigs
glabrous or inconspicuously hairy with minute, scurfy hairs, the pith solid.
Winter buds narrowly ovoid, glabrous except for the finely hairy margins of the
scales. Leaf blades 3.5–9.5 cm long, 1.5–5.0 cm wide, elliptic to
ovate-elliptic, angled or tapered at the base, angled or tapered to a sharply
pointed tip, the upper surface glabrous, the undersurface (and margins)
sparsely to moderately pubescent with stiff, more or less appressed hairs along
the midvein, not glaucous, but the undersurface light green. Flowers in pairs,
1 or 2 in the axils of the leaves on previous years growth
(second-year wood), each pair sessile, the 2 bracts each 3–9 mm long, fused at
the base, ovate to ovate-triangular, hairy along the margins, the pair of
bractlets on opposite sides of each flower somewhat longer than the ovary,
usually fused at the base, oblong-ovate to nearly circular. Calyces glabrous,
the lobes 0.1–0.5 mm long, broadly semicircular or the margin appearing merely
undulate. Corollas 12–18 mm long, somewhat zygomorphic, divided 1/2 or slightly
more than 1/2 of the way to the base into 5 more or less spreading lobes of
about equal length, the lower lobe with deeper sinuses than those between the
other 4 lobes, the tube noticeably swollen or pouched on the lower side near
the base, white, turning cream-colored or pale yellow after pollination or with
age. Stamens and style exserted from the corolla, about as long as the corolla
lobes, the style glabrous. Ovaries fused to about the midpoint. Fruits 6–10 mm
long (oblong-ellipsoid), red. January–February.
Introduced,
uncommon, known thus far from a single site in Cape
Girardeau County
(artificially derived hybrid between two Asian species; introduced in Missouri). Disturbed
mesic upland forests.
This is an
artificial hybrid between two Chinese species, L. fragrantissima Lindl.
& Paxton and L. standishii Jacques. Its leaves are semievergreen.
The intensely fragrant flowers appear very early in the season. The first Missouri collections were made by Mark Basinger in 2000 at
a remnant woodlot within the Cape
Girardeau city limits.