Can be mistaken for : Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera xylosteum) but that grows to only half the height (2m) and has pale yellow to cream coloured flowers and smaller flowers only 8-15mm across (as opposed to 15-25mm across for Tatarian Honeysuckle). Also, the leaves are hairy on Fly Honeysuckle (hairless on Tatarian Honeysuckle). Both have two long, narrow bracts underneath the flower-pairs [as do Wilson's Honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida) and Box-Leaved Honeysuckle (Lonicera pileata), but both of those have purple/violet berries instead of orange/red berries].
Not directly related to : Himalayan Honeysuckle [which is in the same Honeysuckle Family but in a differing genus, Leycestaria].
A deciduous non-native garden shrub native to Siberia and East Asia which escapes as bird-sown occasionally. It has a red berry. In North America it is an introduced so-called 'noxious weed', spreading out of control forming thickets.
Just like Catmint (aka Catnip) (Nepeta cataria) and Garden Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii) as well as Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis), Tatarian Honeysuckle contains the same sesquiterpene lactone Nepetalactone which drives cats wild and into a trance-like ecstatic state.
USE BY BUTTERFLIES
LAYS EGGS ON |
CATERPILLAR |
CHRYSALIS |
BUTTERFLY |
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White Admiral |
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