Morrow's honeysuckle

Taxobox
name = Morrow's Honeysuckle


image_width = 240px
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Dipsacales
familia = Caprifoliaceae
genus = "Lonicera"
species = "L. morrowii"
binomial = "Lonicera morrowii"
binomial_authority = A. Gray

Morrow's honeysuckle ("Lonicera morrowii") is a deciduous honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Japan, Korea, and Manchuria. It is a shrub, reaching a height of 2-2.5 m, with oblong leaves 4-6 cm long. It leafs out quite early in the spring, and in North America is commonly the first deciduous shrub with foliage in March. The flowers are white to pale yellow, and the fruit is a dark red berry 7-8 mm diameter containing numerous seeds. The berries, while eaten frequently by birds, are considered poisonous to humans. It is colloquially called "bush honeysuckle" in the United States, and is considered an invasive species.

As an invasive species

Morrow's Honeysuckle is confirmed as a highly invasive species over the northeastern third of the United States. [http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/map/lomo1.htm Distribution map of "Lonicera morrowii"] Morrow's Honeysuckle thrives at the edges of forests, roads, or other natural or man-made barriers, but is not limited to them, and is found in both mature and disturbed forests.http://www.invasive.org/eastern/eppc/bushhoney.html Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council page on Bush Honeysuckle] . In some areas, Morrow's Honeysuckle is the dominant plant species, especially in areas of disturbed ecological succession. It is suspected that "Lonicera morrowii" is allelopathic, and may capitalize on disturbed ecological succession by establishing itself and then preventing the growth of plants underneath it. With a sufficiently established thicket of honeysuckle, even other shade-tolerant, invasive species, such as Fortune's Spindle have difficulty growing underneath it, whether due to its suspected allelopathic activity or through soil depletion.http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/fact/honeysuckle_morrow.htm Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources]

Effects on flora and fauna

Due to its early leafing, Morrow's Honeysuckle is particularly harmful to spring ephemerals, flowers that evolved to bloom briefly in the spring before other plants leafed out.Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources]

Many Cedar Waxwing's wax spots in the eastern United States have taken on an unusual orange hue in the last 35 years, a phenomenon that has been attributed to "Lonicera morrowii". [ [http://sain.utk.edu/invasives/species45.shtml Invasives Plant Pests Literature Collection: Lonicera morrowii ] ] The chemical involved in this color change is rhodoxanthin, a red dye found in the berries of Morrow's Honeysuckle.

References

External links

* [http://www.invasive.org/browse/subject.cfm?sub=3041 Morrow's honeysuckle]
* [http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/loniceramorr.html Connecticut Wildflowers]
* [http://gallery.cs.umb.edu/gallery/Morrows-Honeysuckle EFG Biodiversity Image Gallery ]
* [http://foj.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gbif/foj Flora of Japan ]