Common Name: twinberry honeysuckle

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

General: Deciduous erect shrub, 0.5-3 m (1.6-10 ft) tall; stems glabrous to sparsely pubescent, sometimes glandular; young twigs 4-angled.

Leaves: Opposite, simple, elliptic to broadly lance-shaped, 2.5- 16 cm long, green and glabrous above or sometimes hairy along the margins and mid veins, pale and somewhat hairy beneath, margins entire, apex acuminate; petiole 0.5-1.2 cm long.

Flowers: Borne in pairs on axillary peduncles, the subtending bracts broad and expanding in fruit, 1-1.5 cm long, green or purple; calyx much reduced; corolla funnel-shaped, 5- lobed, 1.2-1.8 cm long, yellow but sometimes purple tinged, glandular-pubescent, basally spurred.

Fruits: Berry, round, black at maturity, fleshy, often enclosed by enlarged leaf-like bracts.

Ecology: Found along streamsides, in moist forests, thickets from 7,500- 11,000 ft (2286-3353 m), flowers June-July.

Distribution: Apache and Coconino counties; Canada, western U.S.

Notes: Utah honeysuckle tends to increase after thinning, but appears to be easily killed by fire, although it does have the potential to resprout. It makes a fine ornamental and can be propagated by bare root, cuttings, and seed. It has some browse potential for ungulates. Berries are eaten by black bears, birds, and small mammals, and the flowers are visited by hummingbirds.

Editor: Springer et al. 2011

Shrub 1-3 m; lvs ovate to obovate, 6-12 cm, short-acuminate, tapering to a short petiole, villosulous beneath; peduncles 2-4 cm; bracts oval, oliaceous, 1-2 cm, persistent, often anthocyanic; cor yellow, 10-15 mm, pubescent, saccate at base, the lobes subequal, scarcely half as long as the tube; ovaries 3-locular, distinct; style glabrous; fr lustrous black at full maturity; 2n=18. Cold, moist woods and mt. meadows; Que. to n. Mich.; s. Alas. to Calif., N.M., and n. Mex. (Distegia i.) Ours is var. involucrata.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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