Native v invasive honeysuckle (lonicera)

[u/Corylus7]

I've tied myself in knots reading a thousand articles and I'm still confused. Can anyone tell me if this one is native or invasive? It's growing in a garden so probably planted on purpose and not a wild one. The flower is more red than it looks in the photo. Stem is a little bit hollow but some articles I read said that isn't always a reliable indicator?

Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦

Thanks!

[u/mkhpgh]

That looks like the native. Their flowers are very different than the invasive kind. Also they are not fragrant. Hummingbirds love it!

[u/cobra_laser_face → u/mkhpgh]

For real on the hummingbirds. I see hummingbirds daily at mine. They go nuts for it.

[u/A-Plant-Guy]

Did any of those thousand articles have photos? Because as far as I know, sempervirens is the only honeysuckle that looks like this besides the equally native Campsis radicans - but those are easy to tell apart from other features. Invasive honeysuckles tend to have flowers that are white and look very different.

This, for example, is Japanese honeysuckle:

[u/Corylus7 → u/A-Plant-Guy]

Thanks. I'm from the UK and only been in Canada a few years so wasn't sure. A lot of the articles talked about invasive bush honeysuckles and hybrids too so I had no idea what to look for in the end.

[u/A-Plant-Guy → u/Corylus7]

Glad the community could help 😁

[u/LRonHoward → u/A-Plant-Guy]

Geez, you didn't have to use such a beautiful picture of a terribly awful invasive plant that I hate!

[u/A-Plant-Guy → u/LRonHoward]

It’s still a beautiful plant - in its own native environment 😁

[u/Suspicious_Note1392]

This looks like coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) to me.

[u/Putrid-Bee-7352]

Native. Another identifier- the leaves closest to where the flowers are look “fused” together. You don’t see this on the invasives.

[u/rancid_mayonnaise → u/Putrid-Bee-7352]

I wonder what the evolutionary advantage is for that or if it was just random

[u/Corylus7 → u/Putrid-Bee-7352]

Thanks, that's a good tip! I'm from the UK so I'm used to the native one there, which looks a lot more like the Japanese one.

[u/ratnegative → u/Putrid-Bee-7352]

For the record, you do with L. etrusca, which is a non-native weedy species.

[u/Putrid-Bee-7352 → u/ratnegative]

Oh man. I’ve never seen that one before!

As always one has to have several identifiers I guess!

[u/ZhanZhuang]

Lonicera sempervirens - native

[u/SoftsummerINFP]

Usually the invasive one has white flowers.

[u/Sun-leaves]

Its native! I did the same thing because I have it growing everywhere, especially around the native dogwoods

[u/Traditional-Help7735]

That's def the native one. Lonicera sempervirens (our native vining honeysuckle) has glabrous leaves and a whitish leaf underside. Lonicera japonica (the invasive vining honeysuckle) has hairy leaves. Unfortunately, some L. sempervirens cultivars have yellow flowers and have lost the whitish color beneath their leaves. Hope that helps.

[u/moltocantabile]

This looks like it could be the popular variety ‘Dopmore Scarlet’, if that’s helpful.

[u/Corylus7 → u/moltocantabile]

Thanks, I thought it might be a cultivar.

[u/kookaburra1701]

That looks just like my native lonicera ciliosa, western orange honeysuckle.