A deciduous climbing shrub, with glabrous young shoots. Leaves oval, tapering about equally to both ends, 2 to 41⁄2 in. long, 3⁄4 to 2 in. wide, slightly glaucous above, glaucous and slightly downy beneath. The uppermost pair of leaves are wholly united by their bases forming a diamond shape, the next pair lower down is less united, but still clasp the stem, still lower down come short-stalked leaves. Flowers bright yellow, produced in a terminal head of ten to twenty. Corolla-tube 21⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, slenderly cylindrical, glabrous outside, downy within; across the two lips the corolla measures 1 in. or more in width. Berries red. Bot. Mag., t. 8064.
Native of the province of Hupeh, China; discovered by Henry and introduced for Messrs Veitch by Wilson in 1900. It flowered for the first time at Coombe Wood in July 1905. L. caprifolium is closely related, but differs in its whorled flowers and in the glabrous interior of the corolla-tube.
L. tragophylla is the largest-flowered and most showy of the climbing honeysuckles. Wilson, from his knowledge of the wild plants, recommended it for a semi-shaded position, but in British gardens it is no more shade-loving than the others of its group and is happiest in a good garden soil on a trellis or pergola, placed where its roots and stems are shielded from the hottest sun. It will then make a bushy self-supporting crown, and the leaves will be coloured bronze or bronzy purple until flowering time, when it makes a display equalled by few temperate climbing plants. It would be a pity to reject this beautiful species merely because the flowers are not scented.