- Scientific Name: Lonicera japonica Thunb.
- Ref: Murray, Syst. Veg., ed. 14:216. 1784
- Synonym: Caprifolium brachypodum G.Gordon, C. japonicum (Thunb.) Dum.Cours., C. roseum Lam., Lonicera aureoreticulata T.Moore, L. brachypoda DC., L. chinensis P.Watson, L. cochinchinensis G.Don, L. diversifolia Carrière, L. fauriei H.Lév. & Vaniot, L. finlaysoniana Wall., L. flexuosa Thunb., L. nigra Thunb., L. repens Hassk., L. shintenensis Hayata, Nintooa japonica (Thunb.) Sweet, Xylosteon flexuosum (Thunb.) Dum.Cours.
- Chinese Common Name: 忍冬 rěndōng
- Japanese Common Name: スイカズラ [吸蔓] suikazura
- Family: Caprifoliaceae
- Genus: Lonicera
- Distribution:Scrub, sparse forests, mountain slopes, stony places, roadsides; (800-)1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea; widely cultivated in SE Asia; introduced and invasive in North America].
- Photo: 11/24/2018
Climbers, semievergreen. Branches becoming hollow. Branches, petioles, and peduncles with dense, yellow-brown spreading stiff hairs, interspersed with long glandular hairs. Petiole 3-8 mm; leaf blade ovate or oblong to lanceolate, 3-8 × 1.5-4 cm, abaxially sparsely to densely hairy, adaxially hairy along veins, base rounded to subcordate, margin ciliate, occasionally sinuate, apex acute to acuminate. Flowers fragrant, paired and axillary toward apices of branchlets; peduncle 2-40 mm, shorter toward apex of branchlets; bracts leaflike, ovate to elliptic, 1-3 cm; bracteoles ca. 1 mm, pubescent, apex rounded or truncate and ciliate. Neighboring 2 ovaries free; ovary ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Calyx lobes triangular, ca. 1 mm, densely hairy abaxially and along margin, apex acute. Corolla bilabiate, white, becoming yellow, or purple outside and white inside, 3-5 cm, spreading hairy with interspersed long glandular hairs outside; tube 1.5-3 cm, not gibbous at base; upper lip irregularly 4-lobed, lobes 2-8 mm; lower lip recurved. Stamens and style glabrous, subequaling to exceeding corolla. Berries black when mature, glossy, globose, 6-7 mm in diam.; seeds brown, ovoid or ellipsoid, ca. 3 mm, shallowly pitted. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Oct-Nov. 2n = 18*.(Flora of China)
