Amur Honeysuckle

(Caprifoliaceae - Honeysuckle Family)

Form

• large ornamental shrub
• maturing at up to 15' tall by 15' wide
• upright vased growth habit in youth, becoming arching vased and spreading with age
• rapid growth rate

Culture

• full sun to deep shade
• performs best in full sun moist, well-drained, sunny sites, but is extremely adaptable to a wide range of situations, including poor soils, compacted soils, various soil pHs, restricted root zones, drought, heat, high light intensity, full shade to deep shade, salt spray, and heavy pruning
• readily propagated by seeds or rooted stem cuttings
• Honeysuckle Family, with virtually no disease or pest problems
• rarely availabile from nurseries in ball and burlap or container form, but a common noxious woody weed throughout fencerows, wastelands, neglected urban areas, and logged-over forests in much of Eastern North America
• removal of the entire plant is readily achieved while it is still relatively young, as the root system is very shallow and easily dug up on smaller shrubs

Foliage

• medium to dark green, slowly deciduous, with a shiny and glabrous upper surface
• leaves are opposite, elliptic with an extremely acuminate apex, have a short petiole, and droop below the plane of the stem
• one of the earliest shrubs to leaf out in the Spring, and one of the last to drop its foliage in the Autumn
• fall color is green to chartreuse, sometimes tinged with purple but ornamentally ineffective, persisting into November and slowly abscising

Flowers

• white changing to cream then faded yellow, flowering in May and June, with each flower effective for up to two weeks
• flowers are borne upright, with four per node on the second year wood

Fruits

• small, round, red, fleshy berries mature in clusters in September and often persist into December
• showy when in mass, and are readily eaten by the birds and squirrels (and subsequently spread everywhere as an invasive shrub)
• most ornamentally effective in October and November when the numerous bright red berries contrast well against the persistent dark green glossy leaves

Twigs

• tan to brown-white, becoming striated then lightly furrowed on the branches

Trunk

• multi-trunked, light brown, lightly furrowed and ridged, and vased in its overall growth habit, with vertical shoots often arising from the arching trunks

ID Summary

• striated, light brown, arching branches arise from several furrowed trunks
• large shrub that is highly adaptable to many environments, ranging from sunny urban stress areas to deep forest shade, and is highly invasive to various sites
• opposite leaves have very acuminate (long-pointed) apices
• one of the first shrubs to leaf out, and one of the last to abscise its foliage
• fruits are bright red and abundant in Autumn, providing a source of food for wildlife

USAGE

Function

• informal large hedges, deciduous screens, or wildlife attractant when utilized in a landscape situation (where it is often "found", and left alone due to its size or its serendipitous usage as a convenient screen)
• often an aggressive invader species in neglected areas, fencerows, wastelands, or forest understories

Texture

• medium texture in foliage and bold texture when bare
• average to thick density in foliage and open density when bare

Assets

• large rapidly-growing shrub with a vased to arching growth habit (rather attractive when grown in the open and occasionally limbed up)
• showy masses of white/cream/faded yellow flowers in late Spring
• attractive and abundant red fruits in Autumn
• urban stress tolerance, with full sun to deep shade adaptability
• extremely cold hardy, to zone 2

Liabilities

• profuse seed dispersal by birds, rampant seed germination, and an aggressive growth rate creates overwhelmingly large single specimens or thickets of the noxious shrub that are extremely adaptable to adverse and varied conditions
• in natural settings such as open fencerows or understory woodlands, Amur Honeysuckle (from Asia) readily displaces native saplings, shrubs, and wildflowers, and creates a near monoculture of itself as an invader shrub
• poor fall color

Habitat

• zones 2 to 8
• native to Manchuria and Korea

SELECTIONS

Alternates

• large shrubs for the border or those used as a deciduous screen (Calycanthus floridus, Cornus mas, Euonymus alatus, Forsythia hybrids, Hydrangea species, Ligustrum obtusifolium, Lonicera tatarica, Rhodotypos scandens, Syringa vulgaris, Viburnum dentatum, Viburnum prunifolium, Viburnum x rhytidophylloides, Weigela florida, etc.)
• rapidly growing shrubs (Cornus sericea, Forsythia hybrids, Weigela florida, etc.)
• arching and vased-shaped shrubs (Hibiscus syriacus, Ligustrum obtusifolium, Viburnum dilatatum, etc.)
• shrubs with both showy Spring flowers and good Autumn fruit display (Viburnum cassinoides, Viburnum opulus 'Compactum', Viburnum dilatatum, Viburnum trilobum, etc.)
• woody plants with fruits or thick canopy for wildlife attraction (Crataegus species, Malus hybrids, Morus species, Rhamnus cathartica, Quercus species, etc.)

Variants

• none of significant difference from the species form

NOTES

Translation

• Lonicera is named after Adam Lonitzer, a 16th century German naturalist.
• maackii is named after Richard Maack, a 19th century Russian naturalist.

Purpose

• Amur Honeysuckle is representative of escaped shrubs that displace native plants in their natural habitat.

Summary

• Lonicera maackii is a large, vigorous, urban-tolerant, and full sun- to deep shade-tolerant shrub, with showy white to creamy-yellow late Spring flowers, an arching growth habit, and red Autumn fleshy berries that attract birds and squirrels, which disperse its seeds and the species to many different environments.