An evergreen climber forming a dense tangle of twining branches, thickly clothed with yellowish erect hairs when young. Leaves narrowly oblong, with a lance-shaped apex and a heart-shaped base, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide, densely hairy on both sides; stalk 1⁄3 in. or less long, hairy. Flowers purplish red, borne in a short terminal panicle 11⁄2 in. across; corolla two-lipped, 3⁄4 in. wide, yellowish hairy outside; the tube slender, 1⁄2 in. long; the entire flower 1 in. long; bracts inconspicuous. Fruits purplish black. Bot. Mag., t. 8236.
Native of Szechwan, China, whence it was introduced to France in 1899, and first grown by Maurice de Vilmorin. I first saw it growing against a wall in the garden of Phillipe de Vilmorin at Verrières-le-Buisson, near Paris, in June 1908, then in flower. Plants were obtained for Kew the following autumn, and these, so far as I am aware, represent its first introduction to Britain. As I saw it, it was a striking honeysuckle forming a dense thicket, the whole plant having a yellowish tinge, very downy, the rather small flower clusters striking in the contrast of lurid red corolla and yellow stamens. It is hardy in the south and west of England.
It belongs to the same group as L. japonica (sect. Nintooa).