HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera periclymenum)
Europe
Our native Honeysuckle, with its fragrant, creamy YELLOW flowers, spills over the walls of front gardens in this neighbourhood. When the season favours Lonicera periclymenum, every Honeysuckle is a mass of blooms inviting passersby to come closer & breathe in their perfume. Flowers appear from May/June to August, followed by red berries in autumn. These turn black & are available for the birds.
Bees’ Favourite.
Honeysuckle is wildlife-friendly; its nectar attracts bumblebees & night-flying moths. Bumblebees whose tongues are too short may resort to biting a hole in the base of the flower tube to reach the nectar. Moths visiting the flowers include Convolvulus Hawk-moth, Privet Hawk-moth, Elephant Hawk-moth, Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Lime Hawk-moth, Shark, Lychnis, Silver Y & Puss Moth. When no insects visit the flower it may be self-pollinated.
The RHS & The Wildlife Trusts‘ Wild About the Garden website has a list of the 30 best plants for all bumblebees, whatever the length of their tongues. Honeysuckle is among the top 30.
http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/index.aspx
Lonicera periclymenum ‘Rhubarb and Custard’ with squirrel
Used as an antiseptic, Lonicera periclymenum ‘ in small doses, is a useful addition to cough mixtures.’
RHS ENCYCLOPEDIA of HERBS and THEIR USES, Demi Bown
It was believed that if honeysuckle grew around the entrance to a house it prevented a witch from entering. If it grows well in your garden, then you will be protected from evil.
Honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum, closeup of flowers
Honeysuckle foliage
‘Hedge’ of Honeysuckle, other climbers over garden fence
The black berries of Honeysuckle are highly toxic. The leaves have anti-inflammatory properties. Flowers & flower buds are used in various infusions & tinctures to treat coughs, catarrh, asthma, headaches & food poisoning. The leaves & flowers are rich in salicylic acid & are used to relieve headaches, colds, flu, fever, aches, pains, arthritis and rheumatism.
Other names: Evening Pride, Irish vine, Fairy trumpets, Goat’s Leaf, Gramophone Horns, Kettle Smocks, Lamps of Scent, Honeybind, Sweet suckle and Trumpet flowers.
silentowl: Folklore of the Hedgerow Part Ten
http://amayodruid.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/folklore-of-hedgerow-part-ten.html
The Woodbine Public House, Blackstock Road
The native Honeysuckle, also known as Woodbine, is enjoyed in the countryside now as it has been for centuries:
‘Oh how sweete and pleasant is Woodbinde, in Woodes or Arbours, after a tender soft rayne, and how friendly doth this herbe if I may so name it, imbrace the bodies, armes, and braunches of trees wyth his long winding stalkes and tender leaves, opening or spreading forth his sweete Lillies, like ladies fingers, among the thornes or bushes.’
Bulwarke of defence against all sicknesse, soareness, and woundes that doe dayly assault mankinde, gathered and practised by William Bullein, Doctor of Physicke, 1562, London.
GREEN MAGIC – FLOWERS, PLANTS and HERBS in LORE and LEGEND
Lesley Gordon, Ebury Press, Webb & Bower Ltd, Exeter.