twinberry

Lonicera spp.

Family: Caprifoliaceae.

Type: Evergreen vine or shrub.

Branching: Opposite.

Leaves: Simple and entire. Elongated and narrow at the tip. Particularly towards the ends of the branch, the leaves can fuse with the twig and with each other.

Twig: Usually tan, quite delicate.

Fruit & Flower: Flowers are long and tubular, and are visited by pollinators such as hummingbirds and butterflies. Fruit is a berry, red in this particular case but also blue or black. The berries are inedible. On the shrub Lonicera, flowers/berries occur in pairs from leaf nodes, and fused leaves are not observed; in the vine, flowers/berries occur as a cluster at the end of the stem, with fused leaves prior to the cluster.

Miscellaneous: Plants in this genus is generally called honeysuckle when it is a vine, and twinberry when it is a shrub. Found as a vine growing through trees and chaparral shrubs. When it is a shrub, the berries are found in pairs, giving the shrub its name; as a vine, berries are found in larger clusters as seen here. Planted honeysuckle is often actually a shrub, despite the name it is commonly called.