Leycesteria

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Leycesteria
Leycesteria formosa.jpg
Leycesteria formosa
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Caprifoliaceae
Subfamily: Caprifolioideae
Genus: Leycesteria
Wall. (1824)
Species

Leycesteria is a genus of flowering plants in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. It includes seven species native to the Himalayas of northern Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet, and to Myanmar and southwestern China. [1]

The species are shrubs with short-lived stems with soft wood, growing to 1–2.5 m tall. One species, Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan honeysuckle or flowering nutmeg), is a popular garden shrub in Britain.

Leycesteria was named for William Leycester, a horticulturist in Bengal in about 1820. [2]

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Lonicera fragrantissima is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, known by the common names winter-flowering honeysuckle, fragrant honeysuckle, kiss-me-at-the-gate, and sweet breath of spring. It is native to China and has been an introduced species to other parts of the world. It was brought to the attention of western gardeners by Scottish plant hunter Robert Fortune, who was plant hunting in China for the Royal Horticultural Society. Fortune introduced Lonicera fragrantissima to England in 1845, and a few years later it was introduced to the United States. In 1853 the editor of American gardening magazine The Horticulturist wrote that the previous year he had been sent a specimen from a plant that had been flowering in the gardens of Hatfield House, the Marquess of Salisbury's stately home in Hertfordshire. The first mention of a specimen for commercial sale in an American plant catalogue is in 1860.

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Lonicera similis is a species of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Western China. This honeysuckle is known in cultivation by the variety delavayi which is reported by some authorities to be synonymous with L. similis itself. It is a large, twining, semi-evergreen shrub growing to 8 m (26 ft) tall by 1.5 m (4.9 ft) broad, with a profusion of fragrant tubular flowers opening white and ageing to yellow, in late summer and autumn. The flowers are followed by black berries. The Latin specific epithet similis means “similar to”. It is similar in appearance to L. japonica, but larger and more robust. The name delavayi honours the French missionary and botanist Père Jean Marie Delavay (1834-1895).

<i>Lonicera tragophylla</i> Species of honeysuckle

Lonicera tragophylla, the Chinese honeysuckle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Central China, where it inhabits forest, scrub and rocky crevices. Growing to 6 m (20 ft) tall by 1.5 m (4.9 ft) wide, it is a deciduous climbing shrub with grey-green leaves and trumpet-shaped, pure rich yellow flowers in late summer and autumn. Unlike many of its relatives in the honeysuckle genus Lonicera, it is unscented.

References

  1. The Names of Plants, D. Gledhill, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Uk. rep. 1994. ISBN   0521366755. p128