''Lonicera subspicata'' is a species of

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...

known by the common name southern honeysuckle. It is native to

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and northern

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

, where it is known from several areas in mountain and coastal habitat, particularly

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

. It is a vining

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

which usually climbs on other plants for support.

Description

This plant grows twining or reclining on shrubs, and may reach 9 to 24 decimeters in length. The herbage is glabrous to puberulent. The leaves are generally 1 to 4 cm long, with the base of the leaf blade round or more or less tapered, and the tip of the leaf shaped round or obtuse. Upper pairs are not fused around the stem. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a long, fuzzy spike of light yellow flowers each about a centimeter long. The flower has an upper and lower lip with hairy

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s and

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

protruding. The corolla is 8 to 12 mm long, colored pale yellow, and often hairy. The fruit is around 8 mm in size, and is a red or yellow berry.

Subdivisions

var. ''denudata''

Johnston's honeysuckle

Synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

: ''Lonicera subspicata'' var. ''johnstonii'' In this variety, the leaves are shaped wide-elliptic to more or less round, and are less than twice as long as they are wide. It is found in Butte County, the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte County, California, Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Trans ...

, the

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of Southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa Ba ...

, and the

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Pacific Coast Range ...

into

. Flowering is from June to July

var. ''subspicata''

Santa Barbara honeysuckle In this variety, the leaves are shaped narrowly elliptic, and are 3 to 4 times longer than they are wide. It is found only on Santa Catalina Island and the western

. Flowering is from April to May.

Distribution and habitat

This shrub occurs from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

and the northern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

south through the Coast Ranges, into the

and

that extend through

. It reaches its southern distribution at the Tres Vírgenes in

. It is also found on

Cedros Island Cedros Island (''Isla de Cedros'', "island of cedars" in Spanish (language), Spanish) is an island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the state of Baja California, Mexico. The dry and rocky island had a population of 1,350 in 2005 and has an area o ...

Cultivation

For variety ''denudata'', the fruit is reportedly edible. In cultivation, the plant makes a drought-tolerant vining shrub that is good cover for a low fence or the north side of a house. It will climb with support. It is cold hardy to 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
subspicata Flora of California Flora of Baja California Flora of Baja California Sur {{Dipsacales-stub