Pall. ex Schult.
Description
Lonicera hispida is a deciduous shrub of the high mountains of Central and High Asia, ranging through the Himalaya from Pakistan and India to Nepal and Bhutan, across Tibet and western China, and northward into the Tien Shan, Pamir-Alai and Altai of Central Asia and Russia. It grows in subalpine and alpine scrub, open coniferous forest, stream banks and rocky slopes, typically between about 2500 and 4500 m. The photographed material comes from Kem-La in Bhutan at around 4100 m and from Meggu Kichatti in Indian Garhwal at about 3200 m, flowering in June and July. With over 3100 georeferenced records it is a well-documented and widespread montane honeysuckle.
It forms an erect, much-branched shrub up to about 2 m, the young shoots and petioles bristly-hispid with stiff spreading hairs and glandular bristles, the older bark exfoliating. The leaves are opposite, oblong to elliptic, ciliate and bristly-margined, often glaucous beneath. The flowers are borne in axillary pairs subtended by large, broad, persistent bracts that enlarge in fruit; the corolla is tubular-funnelform, white to pale yellow, weakly two-lipped, with a gibbous base and exserted stamens and style. The paired ovaries are partly united, and the fruit is a fleshy berry, red at maturity, the bracts often colouring and partly enclosing the twin fruits.
Lonicera hispida belongs to section Isika and is distinguished by its conspicuously hispid bristly indumentum and large floral bracts. It is morphologically variable across its enormous range, and several varieties have been recognised. The berries are taken by birds, aiding dispersal. As a common, broadly distributed alpine shrub it is of least conservation concern.
Author: Pall. ex Schult. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Rehder's revision of Lonicera