Japanese Honeysuckle
BUSH INVADER
Lonicera japonica
family: CAPRIFOLIACEAE
Description
- Vigorous, fast growing evergreen climber from China and Japan, producing a tangle of twining woody stems.
- Juvenile leaves are lobed; adult leaves are more or less oval and in opposite pairs on the stems.
- Flowers are tube-like, fragrant and nectar filled, ageing from white to yellow, and profuse throughout summer.
- Small shiny black berries follow the flowers in autumn.
Dispersal
Fruit eating birds spread the seeds, stems root down where they touch the ground, and roots make new shoots. This plant is also often dumped on bushland and roadside edges.
Impact on Bushland
Rapidly forms a complete blanket over shrubs and low canopy trees, blocking light, breaking branches, harbouring disease, leading to plant and habitat loss and other weed invasions.
Distribution
Throughout the Blue Mountains.
Alternative Planting
Native Plants
Old Man's Beard (Clematis aristata)
Dusky Coral Pea (Kennedia rubicunda) LM
Wonga Wonga Vine (Pandorea pandorana)
Twining Purple Pea (Hardenbergia violacea)
Exotic alternatives
Banksia Rose (Rosa banksiae)
Madagascar Jasmine (Stephanotis floribunda)
Carolina Jessamine
(Gelsemium sempervirens)
Control
Dig or rip out, removing as much root as possible.
Cut and paint if single stem, or scrape and paint all major stems.
In some situations it is possible to roll the plant up like a carpet.
Best not to pull out of shrubs and trees because of the damage likely to be caused.
Japanese Honeysuckle rapidly forms a complete blanket over shrubs and low-canopy trees, leading to plant and habitat loss and an ecosystem dominated by weeds.
Juvenile leaves of Japanese Honeysuckle are toothed or lobed; stems are red.
Flowers are tube-like, nectar-filled, ageing from white to yellow.
Volunteer bush regenerators freeing tree ferns from a dense cover of Japanese Honeysuckle. It had been dumped in the bushland.
It is sometimes possible to roll up Japanese Honeysuckle like a carpet.
