Common honeysuckle
Lonicera periclymenum
Family · Caprifoliaceae · Irritating
The honeysuckle of northern woods, which scents the whole night because it is pollinated by night moths. It climbs trees by twining, and the spirals leave a permanent mark on the trunk that carries it.
Oak woods · Uplands · Streams and ditches · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known aswoodbine, European honeysuckle
How to tell it
Unlike the southern honeysuckle, the topmost leaves do NOT fuse around the stem: they stay separate, each with its own stalk. Cream trumpet flowers ageing yellow, strongly scented at dusk. Red berries in tight clusters.
What it is confused with
Mediterranean honeysuckle
Lonicera implexa
Look at the two leaves right below the flower: fused into a plate on the southern honeysuckle, separate here. And this one drops its leaves in winter, the southern one does not.
What it is for
Sucking the nectar from the flower is safe and an old game. The berries are not: they cause vomiting and diarrhoea. The twisted stems were used in basketry and in walking sticks with a natural spiral.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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