Lonicera caeruleaL.

deepblue honeysucklesweetberry honeysuckle

WFO wfo-0000359746 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. a Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-02 / obs. 202770235
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Константин Селивёрстов
fig. b Константин Селивёрстов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202393937
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Philipp
fig. c Philipp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201493457
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. d Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196809840
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. e Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155673265
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Valentin Kosterin
fig. f Valentin Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155100429
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Irene Saltini
fig. g Irene Saltini, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149869961
Lonicera caerulea, photographed by Pavel Komkov
fig. h Pavel Komkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150460572

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 61 botanical countries

Regions where Lonicera caerulea is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Tadzhikistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Manitoba, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming AfghanistanAltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeQinghaiSakhalinTadzhikistanTuvaUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyItalyNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaIdahoManitobaMontanaNevadaOregonWashingtonWyoming Korea
Native distribution of Lonicera caerulea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Sakhalin SAK
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Idaho IDA
Manitoba MAN
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
Oregon ORE
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 165 in flower of 377 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Lonicera caerulea observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 165 of 377 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,993 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -26.6 °C -16.6 °C -6.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.5 °C 19.9 °C 24.1 °C
Annual rainfall 454 mm 801 mm 1,955 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 33 mm 109 mm 372 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,993 research-grade observations of Lonicera caerulea that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 40 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Caprifolium borbasianum Kuntze
  • Caprifolium caeruleum (L.) Lam.
  • Caprifolium venulosum (Maxim.) Kuntze
  • Chamaecerasus coerulea Delarbre
  • Euchylia caerulea (L.) Dulac
  • Isika coerulea (L.) Medik.
  • Lonicera altaica Pall.
  • Lonicera altaica subsp. subarctica (Pojark.) Vorosch.
  • Lonicera baltica Pojark.
  • Lonicera boczkarnikovae Pleckanova
  • Lonicera borbasiana (Kuntze) Degen
  • Lonicera caerulea subsp. baltica (Pojark.) Tzvelev
  • Lonicera caerulea subsp. hirsuta (Regel) Kuvaev
  • Lonicera caerulea subsp. kamtschatica (Sevast.) Gladkova
  • Lonicera caerulea subsp. subarctica (Pojark.) Sennikov
  • Lonicera caerulea subsp. venulosa (Maxim.) Vorosch.
  • Lonicera caerulea var. altaica Pall.
  • Lonicera caerulea var. baltica (Pojark.) Sennikov
  • Lonicera caerulea var. edulis Turcz. ex Herder
  • Lonicera caerulea var. glabrescens Herder
  • Lonicera caerulea var. kamtschatica Sevast.
  • Lonicera caerulea var. pallasii (Ledeb.) Cinovskis
  • Lonicera caerulea var. tangutica Maxim.
  • Lonicera cauriana Fernald

and 16 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.