Japanese Honeysuckle - Lonicera japonica

A climbing shrub to 4 metres, hairy. Leaves oval with hairy margins. Flowers white at first becoming yellowish, occasionally tinged with pink, 30 to 40 mm long, two lipped, two hairy flowers per axil with leaf-like bracts, sweetly scented. Berries red at first but black when ripe.

Scrambling over hedgerows and old walls.

Flowering July to September.

Semi-evergreen perennial.

A garden escape that is now locally naturalised in the southern half of Britain.

A recent arrival and still infrequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. It was first recorded in Leicestershire in 2008 and was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.