PlantFiles: Japanese Honeysuckle
Lonicera japonica

An aggressive, foreign, invasive plant. Should be banned.

When I was a kid living in New York City (Queens) someone taught me to pinch off the narrow end of the honeysuckle flower and pull the pistle out. Attached to it would be a drop of nectar which was delicious on the tongue. I love the heavy fragrance as well. Yes, I have a sweet tooth. It is an awful invasive though, so as a responsible gardener I have to give it a negative rating.

Awful stuff!

This grows all along our side yard at the property border which is next to a farm field/meadow field. We've been dealing with the hundreds of vines growing in our direction for over a decade now.

In the Spring, the smell (scent) of the flowers are very 'sickening sweet' to the point of making me sick to my stomach with the smell. Very overpowering smell!

Extremely invasive and fast growing! We've had vines come up from underneath our grass, as well as, spread on top of our grass in search of something to do its clinging and/or wrapping around.

While I would not reccomend planting this plant in your yard as it is very invasive, it does make a wonderful container plant. I have a huge pot of this on my porch, right by the front door. Everyday I look forward to opening the door and smelling the sweet scent that totally fills the porch.

Actually just finished removing a few so I could plant a garden. We have thirty acres of mostly honeysuckle. Yes, it's an invasive weed that takes over everything. If we could just keep a few, it would be nice, because the scent of the flowers is just wonderful, and they draw hummingbirds. Unfortunately, they spread by runners, and they're everywhere.

This is a horrible invasive smothering vine. It's taking over and killing forest understories in many places in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. It will grow over and kill just about anything in it's way. I'd never tolerate, much less plant, it in my yard.

This is an illegal species in Illinois.

I love Honeysuckle and the scent is heavenly especially in the evenings when we go to visit the garden and take in the beauty of the of the flowers.
Japanese Honeysuckle is naturalized in Texas and other States and is considered an invasive plant in Texas.

It's terribly invasive and impossible to get rid of, and I'd never actually plant any on purpose, but this plant does have it's uses.

It is necessary shelter for all sorts of birds and small mamals. It's berries provide food...and it's one of the few things that stays green all winter.

I love to gather an armload and bring the scent into the house....and like others, still take a quick nip of the nectar when I pass by some blooms.

The most interesting part of this invasive, fragrant and
pretty flower is how it changes color, right in front of your eyes almost, from white to yellow as it goes from a
bud stage to a fully open flower.

It is a perennial spreading, trailing or climbing woody
vine that spreads by seeds, underground rhizomes, and
aboveground runners to create dense tangled thickets.
It spreads rapidly and outcompetes native vegetation
by vigorous above- and below-ground competition.

Once established, the vine may literally engulf small
trees and shrubs, which collapse under the weight, and
few plants survive beneath its dense canopy.

It has hardly any natural enemies in North America.

The name Honeysuckle comes from Old English words, HONI
and SUCAN referring to the pleasure of sucking the
nectar.

A common name for Honeysuckle is Woodbine. This refers
to the plant's twining growth habit. It can climb to
great heights.

Linnaeus named this plant Lonicera japonica in honor of
Adam Lonitzer(Lonicerus), a German botanist and
naturalist (1528-1586).

But nature has endowed this invasive vine with beautiful
flowers.

The flowers have white-colored bud.

And they gradually change to cream to light yellow to
yellow to finally yellow-orange during the course of the
complete bloomng process.

And they are highly fragrant with an overwhelming sweet
smell.

This is an introduced plant, and here in the Mid-Atlantic states it is a pest. Birds scatter the seeds, and it creeps into, on, and over any plants, esp. shrubs, fencerows and shaded areas. It is very hard to eradicate - I spend a good portion of every year just keeping it at bay, but never defeating it. I have given up on fencerows, as the roots are impossible to get at, and they break off below ground, and resprout stronger than ever in days. Last fall I hauled a pickup load of roots away from one 2,000 s/f groundcover area. I first mowed it to the ground, after Hostas and Convallaria were dormant. The Ivy area and the Vinca areas will regrow, but it is a real pain to seperate the good roots from the bad. A couple of weeks work, just to keep it under moderate control.

It's on the invasives plants lists in the Northeast as it takes the place of other plants and leads to loss of diversity.

Even though it may be invasive, I grew up wishing to have some in my backyard. Now that I'm 17 and we've moved, I discovered that we have TONS after going out and buying some. It sweeps in and out of the white prairie roses and is very pretty with splashes of yellow here and there and it's crisp green foliage. I consider it a definate plus, especially when the Japanses beetles devour the roses, the honeysuckles are still standing there indestructable and smelling a little bit like tangerine scented heaven.

A pest in this part of the country, it tends to smother out the native plants. Learning how to "drink" the "honey" is a rite of passage for most kids, but I wouldn't intentionally plant it in my garden.

The vine's sweet-scented flower attracts bugs, bees, hummingbirds and even kids. Children have long delighted in picking the delicate white and yellow flowers. They carefully pull the flower apart and hold the stem to their mouth for a golden lick of nectar.

Flowers spring to late summer, berries autumn. Foliage evergreen, leaves sometimes lobed. Fragrant tubular white flowers with soft purple staining. Blue to black berries.