Lonicera japonica

History of Spread

Lonicera japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle) was introduced to North America in the mid-19th century, and soon became naturalized, on Long Island by 1862, and in many other Northeast locations by the turn of the century, reaching North Carolina by 1891 and Florida by 1903 (Hardt 1996; Patterson 1976; Wells and Brown 2000). It now ranges from southern ME to TX, and west to the CA coast (Natural Resources Conservation Service 2000).

In the Chesapeake Bay region, L. japonica was first reported from the Washington DC area by 1876 (Potomac-Side Naturalist’s Club 1876), and was growing in 'many remote places' by 1881 (Ward 1881). It now grows throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed (Brown and Brown 1984; Harvill et al. 1992). In Chesapeake Bay proper, it has been reported on the upper edges of tidal wetlands on Otter Point Creek, Harford County MD (Pasternack et al. 2000); the South River, Edgewater MD (Philipp and Brown 1965), and Sweet Hall Marsh, Pamunkey R. VA (Perry and Atkinson 1997). Tiner and Burke reported it as occurring in 6 of 13 of MD tidal fresh swamps described (Tiner and Burke 1995 ).

References- Brown and Brown 1972; Harvill et al. 1992; Pasternack et al. 2000; Perry and Atkinson 1997; Philipp and Brown 1965; Potomac-Side Naturalist’s Club 1876; Shreve et al. 1910; Tiner and Burke 1995; Ward 1881

Invasion Comments