Northern bush honeysuckle
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated April 2019.
Scientific name: Diervilla lonicera P. Mill.; also Diervilla diervilla (L.) MacM.
Common name(s): northern bush honeysuckle, bush honeysuckle, low bush honeysuckle, dwarf bush honeysuckle, life-of-man, yellow flowered upright honeysuckle, diervilla
Links: USDA PLANTS Profile, NPIN Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- May
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- in flower, mid-June
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- flowers are yellow aging to pinkish
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- flower detail
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- after field pruning
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- reddened leaves
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- fruits
Description:
– generally flowers June, July in ME
-Bush
-reaches 2′-4′ tall,
-twigs with four densely hairy ridges when young,
-oblong, opposite leaves oval at base and tapering at the tip
- toothed and pointed at the end with short leaf stock
-Flowers yellow and funnel-shaped
- grow in twos or threes at tips of stems
- 3/4″ long with protruding stamens.
-a good substitute instead of planting the nonnative invasive honeysuckle
Wildlife Benefits:
-provides winter and summer browse for deer and moose
Habitat:
-alpine zones
-disturbed sites
-forest edges
-grasslands
Source(s):
Hansen, R.W., S.B. Hansen and E.A. Osgood. 1991. Reproductive phenologies of selected flowering plants in eastern Maine forests. ME Agric. Exp. Station Tech. Bull. 143. 17 pp.
Heinrich, B. 1976. Flowering phenologies: Bog, woodland, and disturbed habitats. Ecology. 57(5):890-899.
Go Botany. “Diervilla Lonicera P. Mill.” Diervilla Lonicera (Bush-Honeysuckle): Go Botany, 2021, gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/diervilla/lonicera/.