honeysuckle

honeysuckle
—honeysuckled, adj.
/hun"ee suk'euhl/, n.
any upright or climbing shrub of the genus Diervilla, esp. D. lonicera, cultivated for its fragrant white, yellow, or red tubular flowers.
[1225-75; ME honiesoukel, equiv. to honisouke (OE hunigsuce; see HONEY, SUCK) + -el -LE]

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▪ plant
 any of about 200 species of ornamental shrubs and climbers of the genus Lonicera (family Caprifoliaceae). Honeysuckles are native to temperate zones of both hemispheres, but they also grow in the Himalayas, southern Asia, and North Africa. Honeysuckles flourish in any ordinary garden soil. Most species have two-lipped, fragrant flowers and red, orange, or black berries. Perfoliate, or sweet, honeysuckle (L. caprifolium) is native to Eurasia but has become established in North America. Its clustered, night-blooming, purple-white flowers are pollinated mostly by night-feeding hawk moths because the flower tubes are too long for most other insects to reach the nectar. The fruit is a red-orange berry.

      Another climbing species is the giant Burmese honeysuckle (L. hildebrandiana), with 15-centimetre (6-inch), deep green leaves, 17-centimetre yellow flowers, and 2.5-centimetre green berries. The Japanese honeysuckle (L. japonica) of eastern Asia has become a weed in many areas by growing over other plants and shutting out light. It has fragrant, yellowish white flowers and black berries. Trumpet honeysuckle (L. sempervirens) has oval, sometimes joined leaves and climbs high in forest trees. Its orange-scarlet spikes of 5-centimetre, tubular, five-lobed flowers and red berries are common throughout eastern North America. Woodbine (L. periclymenum), native to Eurasia, twines to 6 m (20 feet). Its whorled, many-flowered clusters of yellowish, purple-tinged blooms are followed by red berries. Some of the garden varieties of woodbine are prized for their delicious fragrance. Some of the more widespread shrub honeysuckles are Tartarian honeysuckle (L. tartarica), from southeastern Europe and Siberia, and four Chinese species: winter honeysuckle (L. fragrantissima), privet honeysuckle (L. pileata), box honeysuckle (L. nitida), and lilac honeysuckle (L. syringantha).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Honeysuckle — Hon ey*suc kle, n. [Cf. AS. hunis[=u]ge privet. See {Honey}, and {Suck}.] (Bot.) One of several species of flowering plants, much admired for their beauty, and some for their fragrance. [1913 Webster] Note: The honeysuckles are properly species… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • honeysuckle — (n.) mid 13c., from O.E. hunigsuge, meaning perhaps honeysuckle, clover, or privet, lit. honey suck, + dim. suffix le. So called because honey can be sucked from it. In Middle English sometimes a confused rendering of L. locusta, taken as the… …   Etymology dictionary

  • honeysuckle — [hun′ē suk΄əl] n. [ME honisocle, dim. (see LE) < OE hunigsuce (Brit dial. honeysuck) < hunig, HONEY + sucan, to SUCK] 1. any of a genus (Lonicera) of plants of the honeysuckle family, with small, fragrant flowers of red, yellow, or white 2 …   English World dictionary

  • Honeysuckle — (engl. hónnĭ ßöckl), s. Geißblattornament …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • honeysuckle — ► NOUN ▪ a climbing shrub with fragrant yellow and pink flowers …   English terms dictionary

  • Honeysuckle — Taxobox name = Honeysuckle image width = 240px image caption = Lonicera ciliosa regnum = Plantae divisio = Magnoliophyta classis = Magnoliopsida ordo = Dipsacales familia = Caprifoliaceae genus = Lonicera genus authority = L. subdivision ranks =… …   Wikipedia

  • honeysuckle —    The name of this plant was used to some extent as a term of endearment in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Examples of its use occur in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, by Beaumont and Fletcher. Another is in The Fancies Chaste and… …   A dictionary of epithets and terms of address

  • honeysuckle — UK [ˈhʌnɪˌsʌk(ə)l] / US noun [countable] Word forms honeysuckle : singular honeysuckle plural honeysuckles a climbing plant with yellow or pink flowers that smell very sweet …   English dictionary

  • honeysuckle —    The strong scent of honeysuckle and the way it twines round the stems of other plants are the likely reasons why it symbolizes erotic love. When it coils tightly round a growing plant, the latter develops spiralling grooves and swellings;… …   A Dictionary of English folklore

  • honeysuckle — noun Etymology: Middle English honysoukel clover, alteration of honysouke, from Old English hunisūce, from hunig honey + sūcan to suck Date: 1548 any of a genus (Lonicera of the family Caprifoliaceae, the honeysuckle family) of shrubs with… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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