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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: gardenwriters-on-gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] native honeysuckle
  • Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 17:17:15 -0700

Title: Re: [gwl-g] native honeysuckle
Near the coast and in the coastal forests, there is a bush honeysuckle, the species of which escapes me, but it is a very handsome shrub with twin black berries.  Flowers aren't that showy, though.  The berries are the most excruciatingly bitter things you could imagine.
   A good friend, Dr. Maxine Thompson, of Oregon State U. has been breeding the edible honeysuckle, (variously, L. caerula, L. caerula edulis, or just L. edulis) and while none have showy flowers, some selections have a very nice growth habit, forming a rounded mound that looks like it was sheared.  The fruit is about the size of a blueberry, dark blue, elongated, ripening about two weeks or so before strawberries.  They tart, and are all right as a fresh fruit, but are best for jams and pies.  
   Nothing is actually available for release at the moment.  I brought this up partly so you would know of it, and partly because Dr. Thompson, 77, has been essentially doing all the work herself, with the money from a few small grants.  I'm working on a story now that I hope will get her some more money.   
-Lon Rombough


Thanks for the recommendations. The Japanese honeysuckle is
considered an invasive plant here in the Midwest, too, so I would
want to recommend that.

Is the L. utahensis widely available?

jems




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