Box Honeysuckle                lon-ISS-er-a ni-TI-da

• Broadleaf evergreen shrub, 4-5 ft (1.2-1.5 m) high, dense.  Leaves opposite, simple, ovate to roundish, 6-16 mm long, entire, rounded at base, glossy (nitida: glossy) dark green, 1 mm petiole.  Flowers creamy white, 6 mm long, in pairs.  Fruit bluish-purple, 6 mm diam., translucent, late summer.
• Sun to light shade.  Takes salt spray.  Often hedged.  Readily root from cuttings.
• Hardy to USDA Zone (6) 7     Native to China.
• Several cultivars, which differ in plant grown habit, leaf color and leaf size, including:
• ‘Baggesen's Gold’  -  new leaves golden
• ‘Elegant’, (‘Elegans’)  -  grows to 1 m, branches loose, somewhat horizontal, spreading, leaves small, about 15 mm.
• ‘Red Tips’  -   burgundy new growth.
• ‘Silver Beauty’  -   silver leaf margins.
• Lonicera: after Adam Lonitzer (1528-86), German naturalist and herbalist.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: southeast Reed Lodge.