Vasilis Teodoridis:
74. Lonicera japonica Thunberg in Murray; Syst. Veg.; ed. 14: 216. 1784.
??? ren dong
Climbers; semi-evergreen. Young branches dark red-brown or purple-black; with dense; yellow-brown spreading stiff hairs; glandular hairs; and short minute hairs; often glabrous on lower part. Petiole 4?8 mm; densely pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish; adaxially intensely green; ovate to oblong-ovate; sometimes ovate-lanceolate; rarely orbicular-ovate or obovate; very rarely 1- to several sinuate; 3?5(?9.5) ? 1.5?4 cm; papery; both surfaces densely stiffly hairy on upper part of branchlets; abaxially often smooth and glabrous and ? blue-gray on lower branchlets; base rounded or subcordate; margin stiffly ciliate; apex acute or acuminate; rarely obtuse; rounded or retuse. Peduncle usually solitary in upper leaf axils of branchlets; ca. as long as or slightly shorter than petioles; those in lower part to 2?4 cm; densely pubescent and mixed with glandular hairs; bracts leaflike; ovate to elliptic; large; 2?3 cm; both surfaces pubescent or sometimes subglabrous; bracteoles ca. 1 mm; 1/2?4/5 as long as calyx tube; stiffly hairy and glandular hairy; apex rounded or truncate. Calyx tube ca. 2 mm; glabrous; lobes ovate-triangular or narrowly triangular; outside and along margin densely hairy; apex acute and long hairy. Corolla white; sometimes reddish at base on sun-exposed side becoming yellow; or purple outside and white inside; (2?)3?4.5(?6) cm; bilabiate; tube slightly exceeding; very rarely subequaling; labia; with ? adpressed spreading or semi-spreading stiff hairs and long glandular hairs; lobes of upper labium obtuse at apex; lower labium recurved. Stamens and styles exceeding corolla. Fruit blue-black when mature; globose; 6?7 mm in diam.; nitid; seeds brown; ovoid or ellipsoid; ca. 3 mm. Fl. Apr?Jun; fr. Oct?Nov. 2n = 18*.
Scrub or sparse forests of mountain slopes; stony places; roadsides; (800?)1500 m. Anhui; Fujian; Gansu; Guangdong; Guangxi; Guizhou; Hebei; Henan; Hubei; Hunan; Jiangsu; Jiangxi; Jilin; Liaoning; Shaanxi; Shandong; Shanxi; Sichuan; Taiwan; Yunnan; Zhejiang [Japan; Korea; ??Myanmar].