Shrub with red berries

11 years ago

This grows all over the place in Pennsylvania. We never knew what it was growing up. It has very small light yellow flowers that look a tiny bit like honeysuckle flowers but they are definitely not honeysuckle, it's a bush. The flowers are slightly fragrant.

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Comments (9)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
11 years ago
It IS honeysuckle - they come in both vining and shrub forms - and this appears to be one of the invasive shrub types. Leaning towards L. morrowii.
carol23_gw
11 years ago
There are a few Lonicera shrubs . Lonicera maackii, tatarica, bella - probably one of those which are invasive.
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mersiepoo
Original Author
11 years ago
Really? Wow, I didn't know there was a bush form! Figures it's invasive, lol! Can you eat the berries? I notice most birds don't eat them. We used to throw them at each other when we were kids.

I'll look it up, thanks guys! :D
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
11 years ago
There are lots of varieties of shrub honeysuckles and not all of them are invasive. One of my preferred shrubs to use in landscape design is Lonicera nitida or boxleaf honeysuckle, a great, shade tolerant evergreen shrub. There is even an evergreen ground cover form of honeysuckle, Lonicera crassifolia, also non-invasive.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
I notice most birds don't eat them

==>>> in the days before instant research.. that was my first clue to stay away ...

but on many plants... the birds leave things until spring ... e.g. crabapples ... perhaps so they can rot and ferment.. then the birds have a reason and will to fly into windows.. lol ...

but one might suspect... that since they are invasive ... most likely.. as some point the birds eat them.. to spread them around ...

i guess my point is.. you think they are ripe for eating now, because you think they are ... maybe that presumption is not correct ... gotta always keep thinking.. or you are dead ...

ken
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 years ago
For the effort of gathering and very dubious edibility they really aren't worth bothering with. Honeysuckle berries. And birds are not a reliable guide to what is fit for humans to eat.
mersiepoo
Original Author
11 years ago
Yeah, you aren't kidding floral- I've seen some of the stuff my chickens would eat....eeeeeech!

LOL Ken! We got our screens scratched by birds careening into our windows..must have been those boozy berries!
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
And birds are not a reliable guide to what is fit for humans to eat.

==>>> i didnt say they were .... i simply said a clue ... but good that you clarified such

ken
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 years ago
Ken petal, I meant that the op's comment that birds didn't seem to be eating the berries was not a reliable pointer one way or the other.