Japanese Honeysuckle is an exotic, invasive vine that is found along forest edges, fence rows, and in forest canopies. In May its very fragrant, white tubular flowers, which turn yellow with age, are borne in pairs at the leaf nodes. A long tube inside the corolla is filled with a honey-like nectar. Children enjoy removing the white blossom and sucking out the few drops of sweetness from the long inner tube thus the common name Honeysuckle.

A native of Japan and China, this vine can climb more than 30 ft and spread over a trees canopy to the point of shading it out and killing the tree. Its runners can also twist tightly around the stems of smaller plants and essentially strangle them by cutting off their supply of water through the xylem cells. Japanese Honeysuckle was introduced to the U.S. in the 1860s and has spread throughout much of the country.

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