A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Lonicera ruprechtiana Reg.

Modern name

Lonicera ruprechtiana Regel

A deciduous shrub forming a shapely bush 8 to 10 ft high, branchlets hollow; young shoots downy. Leaves ovate to oblong, pointed (often slenderly so), tapered at the base; 112 to 4 in. long, 58 to 112 in. wide, dark green and downy only on the sunken midrib above, paler and downy beneath; stalk 14 in. or less long. Flowers not fragrant, produced during May and June in pairs, each pair on a slender downy stalk 12 to 34 in. long, borne in the leaf-axils; corolla white at first, changing to yellow, 34 in. long, glabrous on the outside. Stamens and style hairy. Fruits bright red, 13 in. wide, rather transparent.

Native of N.E. Asia; introduced to Kew from St Petersburg in 1880. According to Maximowicz, who discovered it, it is sometimes 20 ft high. As a flowering shrub it is pretty, although in no way outstanding amongst the bush honeysuckles. But as I saw it in the Arnold Arboretum in June 1910, laden with its scarlet fruit, it struck me as one of the best in the fine collection then in full fruit-bearing there. It is very hardy, but is subject to injury with us by late spring frosts.

var. calvescens Rehd. – Leaves shorter and comparatively broader, slightly downy on the veins beneath. Fruits dull red.

cv.’Xanthocarpa’. – Fruits yellow; flowers smaller. Raised in the Münden Botanic Garden, Germany.

L. × notha Zab. – A group of hybrids between L. ruprechtiana and L. tatarica, raised in the Münden Botanic Garden from seeds of the former species received from the St Petersburg Botanic Garden around 1878. They resemble the seed-parent but have the flowers in shades of pink, turning yellow later. The most attractive are ‘Grandiflora’ with large rose-tinted flowers and ‘Carneorosea’ with the deepest rose-coloured ones. These are among the best of the numerous hybrid bush-honeysuckles.


Genus

Lonicera

Other species in the genus