There
are two native honeysuckle vines found in northeast Alabama, trumpet honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens L., shown here, and yellow
honeysuckle, L. flavaSims.They are very similar except one has red
tubular flowers, which attracts hummingbirds, and the other has yellow although yellow forms of the former are
reported.I have seen a native yellow flowered honeysuckle only once, and that was at the Walls
of Jericho in Tennessee past where most hikers turn around, thus it was at a place where probably
less than one percent of the 10,000 annual visitors ever go.I may have even seen a yellow birch, Betula alleghaniensis Britton, in the same area,
which would be the closest to there being any from Alabama that I know of with the next closest being at Foster Falls near Tracy City, Tennessee.Another common name for these native honeysuckles is mailbox vine since
they are or at least were commonly planted next to rural mailboxes, but now is
seems more likely to see Clematis L. hybrids climbing on a mailbox post.There are several invasive exotic
honeysuckles including Japanese honeysuckle, L. japonica Thunb., which is the most familiar due to being the one mostly used for sucking
nectar from the flowers, although I never really cared for doing that because the nectar is so sickeningly sweet, but never suck nectar from the wild honeysuckle that are shrubs with pink (or sometimes white to orange flowers because these are actually azaleas, Rhododendron L., and very toxic. There is just one species of honeysuckle that has edible fruit, it is sweetberry honeysuckle, L.caerulea L., also known as honeyberry, it is a shrub listed in some mail-order nursery catalogs as being very cold hardy thus it appears to be more suitable for a northern location, besides I wouldn't want to take a chance considering the following.The rest of
the invasive honeysuckles species are lumped together as Asiatic bush
honeysuckles and includes Amur honeysuckle, L. maackii(Rupr.) Herder, sweet-breath-of-spring
honeysuckle, L. fragrantissimaLindl. & Paxton, Morrow’s honeysuckle, L. morrowii A. Gray, Tartarian honeysuckle, L. tartarica L., and Bell’s
honeysuckle, L. ×bella Zabel [morrowii × tatarica], which is a hybrid of the later two.Apparently sweet-breath-of-spring is the one that has virtually taken
over much of the forest understory in and around Huntsville,
Alabama, including MonteSanoState
Park, since the others all have a reported naturalized ranges
outside of Alabama, unfortunately some nurseries continue to sell this invasive exotic weed as an heirloom plant. The native bush honeysuckles are in the genus Diervilla Mill., and are found near remote streams in this area. American fly honeysuckle,Loniceracanadensis Bartram ex Marsh., is another native shrubby honeysuckle, but it is found in the mountains from northeast Georgia northward. The interesting thing about it is that it was apparently named by John Bartram the father of William Bartram. This is plausible since the latitudinal range is centered about Philadelphia where they lived.