Jin Yin Hua

Lonicera japonica, commonly known as Japanese honeysuckle or by its Chinese name Jin Yin Hua (gold and silver flower), is a vigorous, semi-evergreen to evergreen twining woody vine in the family Caprifoliaceae native to eastern Asia, including China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and widely naturalised and often invasive in North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Its slender, hairy stems climb by twining and can reach 10 m in length, rooting at the nodes where they touch soil. The leaves are opposite, ovate to oblong, 3 to 8 cm long, with entire margins and a softly pubescent underside. Fragrant tubular flowers are borne in pairs from the leaf axils throughout summer; each flower opens white and ages over a day or two to deep yellow, so that flowers of both colours are present on the plant simultaneously, the source of its evocative Chinese name. The corolla is two-lipped with the upper lip four-lobed and the lower lip a single recurved strap, and the stamens and style are conspicuously exserted. The fruit is a small, glossy, blue-black to black paired berry.