Bush Honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Plantae
Phylum	Magnoliophyta
Class	Magnoliopsida
Superorder	Asteranae
Order	Dipsacales
Family	Caprifoliaceae
Genus	Lonicera

Scientific Name

Lonicera maackii

Common Name

Amur honeysuckle

Miller, J.H., E.B, Chambliss, N.J. Loewenstein. 2010. A Field Guide for the Identification of Invasive Plants in Southern Forests. General Technical Report SRS-119. Asheville, NC. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 126 p.

Plant

Tardily deciduous, upright, arching-branched shrubs to small trees. Amur to 30 feet (9 m) in height and spindly in forests, Morrow’s to 6.5 feet (2 m) in height, Tatarian and sweet-breath-of-spring to 10 feet (3 m) in height, and Bell’s to 20 feet (6 m) in height. Much branched and arching in openings, multiple stemmed, dark-green opposite leaves, showy white to pink or yellow flowers, and abundant orange to red berries.

Stem

Opposite branched, light tan with braided-strand appearance. Bark often flaking. Older branches hollow.

Leaves

Opposite in 2 rows, ovate to oblong with rounded bases, 1.2 to 4 inches (3 to 10 cm) long. Persistent into winter. Margins entire. Amur tapering to a long slender tip; Bell’s to a medium tapering tip; and others with short pointed tips. Morrow’s with wrinkled upper surface and both Amur and Bell’s soft-hairy lower surface, others with hairless leaves. Petioles 0.1 to 0.4 inch (2.5 to 10 mm) long.

Flowers

February to June. Axillary, bracted short-stemmed clusters, each with 1 to several white to yellow (some pink to red) flowers. Petals tubular flaring to 5 lobes in 2 lips (upper lip 4-lobed, lower lip single-lobed). Five extended stamens. Fragrant.

Fruit and seeds

June to March. Abundant spherical, glossy berries paired in leaf axils, each 0.2 to 0.5 inch (6 to 12 mm). Green becoming pink and ripening to red (sometimes yellow or orange). Usually persistent into winter and sometimes spring.

Ecology

Often forms dense thickets in open forests, forest edges, abandoned fields, pastures, roadsides, and other open upland habitats. Relatively shade tolerant. Colonize by root sprouts and spread by abundant bird- and other animal-dispersed seeds. Seeds long lived in the soil.

Resembles

Resembles the woody vine, Japanese honeysuckle (L. japonica Thunb.) as far as leaves and flowers. Also resemble the native shrub American fly honeysuckle (L. canadensis Bartr. ex Marsh.), which has hairy-margined leaves, blue fruit, and is found at high elevation in mountains. Also resemble the native bush honeysuckles (Diervilla spp.), which have similar leaves but terminal flowers in cymes and capsules for fruit.

History and use

All introduced from Asia in the 1700s and 1800s, and used as ornamentals and wildlife plants. Some still sold.

Distribution

Found throughout the region with dense infestations in KY, TN, central VA, and north AR.

Management strategies

• Do not plant. Remove prior plantings, and control sprouts and seedlings. Bag and dispose of fruit in a dumpster or burn.
• Minimize disturbance within miles of where these plants occur, and anticipate wider occupation when plants are present before disturbance.
• Treat new plants when young to prevent seed formation.
• Repeated cutting to prevent fruiting once a year in forests will diminish stands. Cut only when fruit are not present.
• Manual pulling, tree wrenching, and grubbing with a pick mattock can control small plants and small populations when roots are removed; these strategies are easiest when soil is moist. Soils should be tamped down to discourage further invasion.
• Burning treatments are most effective in spring for seedling kill and topkill. Repeat for suppression.
• Bush honeysuckles are not readily eaten by goats, deer, or sheep, while high deer densities unless controlled will slow revegetation by native plants.

Treatment access can be limited by dense growth and will warrant trail cutting.

Recommended control procedures

• Thoroughly wet all leaves with glyphosate herbicide, Garlon 3A, or Garlon 4 as a 4-percent solution in water (1 pint per 3-gallon mix) with a surfactant (April to October); or when leaves turn yellow, increase the strength of the Garlon 4 application to a 6-percent solution (20 ounces per 3-gallon mix). Other alternatives include: Garlon 4 as a 20-percent solution (5 pints per 3-gallon) mix in a labeled basal oil product, vegetable oil or mineral oil with a penetrant, or fuel oil or diesel fuel (where permitted); or undiluted Pathfinder II* applied to young bark as a basal spray to all stems in a clump (winter applications recommended).
• For stems too tall for foliar sprays, cut large stems and saplings and immediately treat the stump tops with one of the following herbicides when safety to surrounding vegetation is desired: a glyphosate herbicide, Garlon 3A as a 20-percent solution (5 pints per 3-gallon mix), or undiluted Pathfinder II. ORTHO Brush-B-Gon, Enforcer Brush Killer, and Vine-X are effective undiluted for treating cut-stumps and available in retail garden stores (safe to surrounding plants). Elsewhere, apply Pathway* undiluted in summer or fall. Treating in the spring will result in significantly lower control, especially when using a glyphosate herbicide.
• For large stems, make stem injections using Arsenal AC* or when safety to surrounding vegetation is desired, Garlon 3A or a glyphosate herbicide using dilutions and cut-spacings specified on the herbicide label (anytime except March and April). An EZ-Ject tree injector can help to reach the lower part of the main stem; otherwise, every branching trunk must be hack-and-squirt injected.

* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.

Images

Sweet Breath of Spring: September	Amur	Amur: Spring
Sweet Breath of Spring: September	Amur: December	Amur: Spring
Amur: December	Amur: December	Tatarian: May

Download the publication