Japanese Honeysuckle: Why There are Two Flower Colors
What Gives with Japanese Honeysuckle Flowers?
Here in the Eastern US there are many different native vines, along with a cadre of introduced or invasive vines as well. Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicrea japonica) is one of them. If you're like me, as a kid I loved plucking the yellow and white flowers, nipping off end and sucking the base of the flower to get the sticky sweet drop of nectar from inside. As an adult I occasionally do the same thing, while cursing the rapid growth of the vine as it takes over my backyard fence. I'm not going to go into the whole life cycle of Japanese honeysuckle here, but if you want to know more check out this great dissertation about its life history and ecology by Anna D. Letherman and her PhD thesis from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Mostly what I'm interested in is a very basic question: Why does the Japanese honeysuckle have two different flower colors?