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Honeysuckle

Lonicera periclymenumCaprifoliaceaeClimber

The hedgerow climber whose scent arrives at dusk, and a plant built for moths rather than for bees. Honeysuckle's long narrow corolla tube puts the nectar out of reach of almost every bee, and its evening perfume and pale flowers advertise to hawkmoths. Bumblebees with long tongues manage it, short-tongued bees rob it through the base, and honey bees mostly cannot use it at all — which makes it a useful corrective to the assumption that a fragrant flower is a bee flower.

Where not to plant it

The native European species is well behaved. Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, is seriously invasive across the eastern United States, New Zealand and Australia and should not be planted there.

Caution

The berries are mildly toxic if eaten in quantity, particularly to children.

Value to bees

Nectar
High
Pollen
Low
As a honey crop
Not a honey source
Which bees, and why
Primarily a moth plant — elephant hawkmoths and other long-tongued nocturnal visitors are the intended audience, and the evening scent and pale colour are aimed at them. Long-tongued bumblebees such as the garden bumblebee feed legitimately; short-tongued bumblebees bite through the base and rob it, and honey bees then use those holes. Very little pollination results from either form of robbing.

A long narrow tube that excludes almost all bees by the front. Together with comfrey and foxglove this is one of the three plants that best demonstrate why flower shape gates the visitor list.

Worth knowing
High nectar, and largely unavailable to bees. The ratings and the accessibility note have to be read together here or the plant looks far better than it is for the insects most people are planting for.

Flowering

In flower
June to September (northern hemisphere)

A long season, with the scent strongest at dusk and through the night — the timing tells you what it is advertising to.

When nectar flows
Nectar sits at the base of a corolla tube two to four centimetres long, and is produced most heavily in the evening. This is a nocturnal advertising strategy, not a diurnal one.
Year-to-year variation
Dependable in the garden. Never a honey crop.

Growing it

Conditions
Roots in shade and cool moist soil, shoots in sun. The old advice — cool feet, warm head — is exactly right.
Size
4-7 m.
Native range
Europe, North Africa and western Asia.
Suits
Walls and fences, Hedgerow, Small gardens, Large gardens
  • Grow it for moths and for scent, and plant something else for bees. It is a good plant honestly described rather than a bad one.
  • The native woodbine is better for wildlife than the Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), which is invasive in North America and elsewhere.
  • Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) is a different proposition entirely — a shrub with short accessible flowers that bees genuinely can use, in December.

What it looks like

A twining woody climber with oval paired leaves and whorled heads of long tubular flowers, cream to yellow and flushed red-purple outside, opening in the evening and followed by red berries.

Sources

  • Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
  • Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

Guides covering this plant

Tools for planning planting

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