Plant Profile – Twining Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica)

By Patsy Cotterill

Our profiled shrub for this issue is twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica), chosen because it is the subject of some excellent photos by Patrick Kyle and Manna Parseyan, the colours of which will serve to brighten up our winter days. 

It is a member of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, which is characterized by having everything in pairs: paired opposite leaves, flowers and fruits. In Alberta the family is represented by two genera of shrubs: Lonicera, the honeysuckles, and Symphoricarpos, the snowberries. 

Twining honeysuckle grows in open woodland or woodland edges and is a vine, climbing or scrambling up adjacent woody vegetation by means of its twining stems. Older plants can have woody stems and be shrub-like, but lacking support the young stems will trail along the ground, a change in habit that can be confusing to observers.  

1. Twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) in its reclining or sprawling habit. River valley at Rio Terrace, Edmonton. 2024-06-03. Photo: P. Cotterill.

2. Young shoot of twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) growing along Sandhills Trail, Elk Island National Park. Note the older woody stem in bottom right. 2014-05-24. Photo: P. Kyle.

The paired opposite leaves are ovate to obovate, more or less without stalks, and hairless above but with a white covering of soft hairs beneath. The upper two or more pairs of leaves are joined around the stem (a condition called connate), with the uppermost pair forming a characteristic shallow cup around the flower cluster.  The flowers appear at the end of May or in early June and are long (1.5-2.5 cm), trumpet-shaped, with five lobes arranged in two lips, and vary in colour from yellow to orange to red. The corolla tube, five stamens and single stigma, with a knob-like head, are all hairy. The several-seeded berries begin ripening in late July to early August, turning from yellow to orange to red as they mature. 

1. Paired flower buds of twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) in saucer-like structure formed by connate upper leaves. Note the swollen (gibbous) bases to the corolla tube. 2015-05-30. Photo: P. Kyle

2. Flower cluster of twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) with opening flower buds, on the Sandhills Trail, Elk Island National Park. 2015-05-30. Photo: P. Kyle.

3. Flower cluster of twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) in Fort Saskatchewan Prairie. 2011-06-12. Photo: P. Cotterill.

Twining honeysuckle makes an attractive addition to the native shrub garden. It should be grown close to other vegetation for support. It can be grown from seed and will also be available as young seedlings from Arnica Wildflowers next season. 

1. Twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) in shrub form in an Edmonton garden. Note the ripe berries in early August. 2024-08-04. Photo: P. Cotterill.

2. Ripe berries of twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica)  in an Edmonton garden, also showing white-hairy underside to the connate leaves which form a cup-like cluster. 2024-08-04. Photo: P. Cotterill.

3. One-year-old seedlings of twining honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica), grown in cultivation. 2025-11-06. Photo: M. Parseyan.