I'm posting it here since I'm 90% sure it's a CA native...I bought it at Mostly Natives Nursery last year but realized a few weeks later that it was missing its tag. It lost all its leaves over the winter (not sure if that's because it's deciduous, or if it was because of our unusual cold. Now it's come back with leaves and it's blooming so I thought I'd see if someone might know what it is
and another view:
Hi,
Are the flowers in pairs?
~'spin!~
Yes they are in pairs.
Lonicera involucrata... it seems the [plant and flower] form can be quite varied (from the pics I see on Googling)...
http://www1.lf1.cuni.cz/~kocna/flowr_my/p5276997.jpg
http://flora.nhm-wien.ac.at/Seiten-Arten/Lonicera-involucrata.htm
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_flora_index&enlarge=0000+0000+0205+0125
It is a native. The var. ledebourii has red-der outer-petals (it seems):
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_flora_index&enlarge=8120+3181+4902+0031
Here's what's funny -- I only know this because Blooms found the *berries* (or maybe it was just the bracts after the berries) in the LaSal Mountains in Utah!
~'s!~
aka Twinberry Honeysuckle or just Twinberry
This message was edited Mar 18, 2007 7:42 PM
Thanks--that is it, I remember buying it now and I found it in my journal too (which means I probably can't blame the nursery for it not having a tag!). I've never seen it growing in the wild here either--guess maybe it likes it better in Utah! Now I just need to find a place for it, I have one garden bed on the side of my driveway/garage that's devoted to CA natives, I'm sure I can find room in there somewhere!
County distribution in California:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=California&statefips=06&symbol=LOIN5
A new layout? of the USDA info (says it gets to 10' -- watch out!):
http://plants.nrcs.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_attribute.cgi&symbol=LOIN5
~'s!~
Thanks! Looks like it exists in my county, don't recall ever seeing it, but the flowers aren't really very noticeable so I could have walked right past it and never noticed (only reason I noticed them on my plant was because I picked up the pot today to move it and saw the flowers when they were right in front of my face!). If it really gets to 10' I'll have to be a bit more creative about where I put it, hopefully it'll take it quite a few years to get that big (right now it's about 6" tall)
