Thursday, January 3, 2013

Flower: Japanese honeysuckle 金銀花





Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is a climbing vine from Asia that has a lovely fragrance and pretty flowers - but which can pose a significant threat to our forests when it spreads into the wrong place.

It is a vigorous evergreen shrub that will typically be seen winding its way up host plants or forming dense clumps along the roadside or on forest margins. Japanese honeysuckle is easily recognised by its tubular and sweetly-scented flowers, ageing from cream to yellow-cream from September through to May. Glossy black berries, from 5-7mm long, are also noticeable from October to June.

The berries/leaves of most honeysuckle are toxic, but either flower (white or yellow) can be used. Flowers can be dried to make a tea, very common in Asia for many ailments or for health maintenance and combined with others for sore throat and cough medicine. jīn yín huā (Chinese: 金銀花; literally "gold silver flower")





7 comments:

Tina´s PicStory said...

thanx for your nice weekend flowers! :)

vincibene said...

Mhhmmm, we have honeysuckle too, it smells so good!

Carole M. said...

and don't they smell so good; another from my childhood memories

Liz said...

Beautiful!

Liz @ MLC

Unknown said...

Very pretty!

Modern Mom said...

So pretty.Hope you'll find time to visit my Periwinkle flower.

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