Appearance
The flowers are double-tongued, opening white and fading to yellow, and sweetly vanilla scented. The fruit is a globose dark blue berry 5–8 millimetres diameter containing numerous seeds.
Distribution
Japanese Honeysuckle has become naturalized in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand and much of the United States, including Hawaii, as well as a number of Pacific and Caribbean islands.In the United States Japanese Honeysuckle is classified as a noxious weed in Texas, Illinois, and Virginia, and is banned in New Hampshire. It grows extremely rapidly in parts of America such as southwestern Ohio and is virtually impossible to control in naturalized woodland edge zones due to its rapid spread via tiny fruit seeds. It forms a tall dense woody shrub layer that aggressively displaces native plants. It is also very difficult to manage in semi-wild areas, such as in large rural yards.
It is listed on the New Zealand National Pest Plant Accord as an unwanted organism.
Uses
This species is often sold by American nurseries as the cultivar 'Hall's Prolific'. It is an effective groundcover, and has pleasant, strong-smelling flowers. It can be cultivated by seed, cuttings, or layering. In addition, it will spread itself via shoots if given enough space to grow.In both its native and introduced range, Japanese Honeysuckle can be a significant source of food for deer, rabbits, hummingbirds and other wildlife.
The cultivar 'Halliana' and the variety "L. japoinica" var. "repens" have both gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
