Morrow’s honeysuckle

not listed

NNA - Not applicable

SNA - Not applicable

not listed

Restricted Noxious Weed

Morrow’s honeysuckle is listed as an invasive terrestrial plant by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

UPL - Obligate upland

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

Morrow’s honeysuckle is an erect, 3′ to 10′ tall, perennial shrub that rises from shallow roots. It sometimes forms dense thickets.

The branches are straight and hollow. They are light green and covered with soft, fine, short hairs when young. Older branches have shaggy, grayish-brown bark.

The leaves are opposite, untoothed, oval or oblong, and 1⅛″ to 2⅓″ long. They are bluish-green on the upper surface and downy on the underside.

The flowers occur in pairs arising from leaf axils. They are white but turn yellow with age.

The fruit is a red berry.

3′ to 10′

White, turning yellow

Aside from northern bush honeysuckle, all honeysuckles native to Minnesota are vine-like, not shrubs, and have twining branches.

Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) is also a non-native species. It has white or pink flowers that do not turn yellow with age. Its leaves are entirely hairless.

Deciduous woodland borders, savannas, thickets, fence rows, urban vacant lots, railroads, roadsides. Full sun to partial shade.

May to June

Honeysuckle aphid (Hyadaphis tataricae) causes a witches’ broom of stunted leaf and stem growth at the end of shoots.

Morrow’s honeysuckle plant is thought to be allelopathic, releasing a toxin in the soil that inhibits the growth of other species.

The red dye rhodoxanthin, in the fruit of Morrow’s honeysuckle, is responsible for an unusual orange hue in the wax spots of cedar waxwings in the last 35 years.

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Native to Japan and South Korea. Introduced and naturalized in North America.

Common

Plant

Inflorescence

Flowers

Leaves

Stem

Location: Cass County