Lonicera caerulea

Blue Honeysuckle

The Blue Honeysuckle ( Lonicera caerulea), also Double Blue Berry, is a plant belonging to the family of the Honeysuckle family ( Caprifoliaceae ). It is native to the Alps and their forelands.

Features

The Blue Honeysuckle is a shrub with twining stems and branches not. It reaches a height of 60 to 80 (up to 150 ) centimeters. The branches are dark brown hair and partially frosted. Elderly are gray-brown scaly. The winter buds are brown - red, some blue frosting. The terminal buds are spherical with an extended tip, and 9 millimeters long. The lateral buds are are oval, spreading and have keeled bud scales. Frequently Beiknospen occur.

The leaves are opposite, entire, elliptic- ovate stalked with a length of up to 7 centimeters and up to five millimeters long.

The flowers are in pairs in the leaf axils on a common shaft ( Hypo panel ), which is shorter than the flowers. The flowers are greenish- yellow and slightly zygomorphic. The two ovary of a flower pair are almost completely fused together. Flowering period: May and June, the pollination is done by insects ( bees, bumblebees ). For this double ovary arise wenigsamige, black and blue double- berries.

Occurrence

The species is circumpolar spread with various clans, which are classified as varieties or subspecies. The distribution of native to Central Europe Lonicera caerulea var caerulea variety ranges from the Pyrenees through the Alps to the south-west to south-east to the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. In Germany it occurs only in Baden- Württemberg and Bavaria, in Austria in all provinces except Vienna and Burgenland.

This species grows in moist woods, thickets, in the krummholz region and in bogs. They settled mostly moist to wet, nutrient - and lime- Rohhumusböden. It comes from the montane to subalpine level to level up to 2100 m before.

She is a Ordnungscharakterart the spruce forests ( Piceetalia abietis ), but also comes in the blackthorn hedges ( Prunetalia spinosae ) and gray willow thickets ( Salicion cinereae ) ago.