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Lonicera korolkowii Stapf

Modern name

Lonicera korolkowii Stapf

A deciduous shrub of loose, spreading, graceful habit, 6 to 10 ft high; branchlets hollow; young shoots very downy. Leaves ovate or oval, usually tapered at the base, pointed, 34 to 114 in. long, 12 to 78 in. wide, pale glaucous green, downy on both surfaces, especially beneath; stalk up to 14 in. long. Flowers produced in pairs from the leaf-axils of short lateral branchlets in June, pale rose-coloured. Corolla 23 in. long, two-lipped, the tube slender and about as long as the lobes, downy inside; flower-stalk 13 in. long, downy. Berries red.

Native of the mountains of Soviet Central Asia and of the bordering parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan; first cultivated by A. Lavallée, of Segrez, France, who received seeds from Col. Korolkow of Moscow, but first distinguished as a species in 1893 from a plant growing in the Arnold Arboretum, received from Lavallée. Its most striking character when in leaf is the pale grey hue of the whole plant. It is a beautiful and graceful shrub, but does not flower so freely in this country as on the continent and in the USA.

var. zabelii (Rehd.) Rehd. L. zabelii Rehd. – Leaves glabrous on both sides, rounded or slightly narrowed at the base. This should not be confused with the “L. zabelii” of the trade, which is a cultivar of L. tatarica.


Genus

Lonicera

Other species in the genus