Honeysuckle
size:
vines grow meters long
color:
flowers: white, pink, yellow
fruit: bright red
blossoms:
June - autumn
pollination:
usually moths; otherwise bees, hoverflies and other insects
reproduction:
seed
life span:
perennial
- Dut: Wilde Kamperfoelie
- Lat: Lonicera periclymenum
- Eng: Honeysuckle
- Fren: Chevrefeuille des bois
- Ger: Wald-Geissblatt
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- Honeysuckle, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
Honeysuckle
During a walk in the evening through the woods or dunes in the summer you can't miss the odors. Particularly when you run into areas where honeysuckle grows. Because its nectar lies deep down in the horn-shaped flower, long-tongued moths are the most welcome pollinators. To attract these night insects, honeysuckle gives off a stronger odor at night. This woody vine-like plant is common throughout the Netherlands. Honeysuckle grows best on light, humus-rich, nutrient-poor soils in the sun or half shadow. In the dunes, you often see honeysuckle intertwined with other shrubs or trees, particularly along the edges of dune slacks. As tasty as they may look, the deep-red berries are slightly poisonous.
- Moths
- Honeysuckle, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
While hovering in front of the flower, various species of hawk and owlet moths suck out the nectar with their long rolling tongues. The tongues of hawk moths can be more than 2 centimeters long! When moths are lacking, other insects gladly drink the sweet nectar. But their tongues are short and therefore they need to crawl into the flower or bite holes on the side to reach it. In the process, they get covered in pollen, making them good pollinators.
See also
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