Lonicera x bella

shrub-like honeysuckle - Originating in Russia, Asia, and Japan, these shrubs and the related vine honeysuckle (L. japonica) were long prized for their sweet flowers and bright berries and widely distributed as horticultural plants and for wildlife food and color. Promoted by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service for erosion control, and well established along roadsides, they spread to abandoned fields, woodland edges, and wetlands, where they are capable of shading out smaller native ferns, grasses, and wildflowers and suppressing succession. Though they degrade the microhabitats that small creatures such as insects, rodents, and reptiles prefer, the honeysuckles are attractive to birds, which readily disperse their seeds. The honeysuckles, taken together, are among the most abundant invasive plants in New England. [image: (c) New England Wild Flower Society]

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