by Elizabeth Shaheen
The Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, hails from eastern Asia including Japan, Korea, northern and eastern China and Taiwan. It plays a great part in the scented garden, its sweet, evocative perfume free on the air.
As a child, I would risk the sting of bees and shoo them away from the nectar bar the honeysuckle had provided them, to pick the flowers and suck the sugary nectar from their bases.
The open-mouthed flowers arrive in shades of white to yellow.
There are around 180 species of honeysuckle, varying from small evergreen shrubs with no flowers, to the enthusiastic, colourful, swooningly scented climbers grown in gardens worldwide. Honeysuckles’ twining stems dress trelliswork, pergolas and fences with the ability to climb up to 10m high or more in trees. Different forms flower from late spring through summer well into autumn. They are rarely strong growing and are valuable in small corners as companions to tall boundary shrubs, and some will stand shade. Birds relish the berries and aid in dispersing the plant.
Climbing and twining honeysuckles make attractive leafy backdrops or vertical accents. There is a range of flower colour and season from which to choose for adjacent planting and sun or shade considerations.
All honeysuckles do best with their feet in the shade, in fertile soil and many flower most abundantly with their heads in the sun or dappled shade.
When planting a honeysuckle, prepare a hole (about 30cm from a wall or fence) twice the size of the plant’s root ball and incorporate into the soil one part of manure and humus.
Place the plant in the hole with the level of the root ball at the same level as your ground, fill with mixed soil and water in well. It is imperative to keep your plant moist throughout the summer during its first year.
With some forms, their twining stems can suffocate a host plant but these forms are superlative for plumping out a thinning hedge.
Pruning, if needed, should be carried out after flowering, when the flowered shoots can be cut back by one-third.
When the plant is well established at around three years old, remove one in three of the oldest shoots near to ground level. This will ensure a good display of bloom in following years.
Woodbine or European honeysuckle (L periclymenum) was once widely used for asthma, urinary complaints and in childbirth. Pliny recommended it to be taken in wine for spleen disorders.
Today, Lonicera japonica – or known as jin yin in Chinese medicine – is more likely to be used medicinally. It has been used as a herbal medicine for thousands of years.
Jin yin was first listed in the Tang Ben Cao (book of traditional Chinese medicine), written in 659AD, and is one of the most important Chinese herbs for clearing heat and poisons from the body. Its medicinal attributes are antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, mild diuretic and antispasmodic.
Flower buds known as jin yin hua contain inositol and are widely used for treating fevers, especially those attributed to “summer heat”.
They clear the toxins or “fire poisons” that in traditional Chinese theory cause conditions such as boils and dysentery. To treat some types of diarrhoea, the Chinese warm the buds by slightly stir-frying them.
Lonicera enters the heart and liver meridians and its sweet and cold properties produce body fluids to thwart the consumption of yin from internal heat.
Fresh pulverised lonicera can be applied topically and positioned on painful and swollen areas. It can immediately reduce swelling and pain, and hasten the recovery process.
Ink black, “toxic” berries succeed the flowers in small clusters of three. The compounds that make the berries toxic are the pigments that make them black referred to as carotenoids. An example of which is beta-carotene found in carrots, peppers and tomatoes. When unripe, the fruits are green.
The vines possess a toxic group of chemicals called cyanogenic glycosides, which release hydrogen cyanide when combined with an acid.
The stems are called jin yin teng and ren dong teng, the stems and branches are generally used to remove heat from the acupuncture meridians, by stimulating the circulation of qi (energy). They are also used to treat feverish colds and dysentery, and as a cooling remedy in combination with other herbs for the acute stages of arthritis.
The dried flowers are wonderful in pot-pourri, herb pillows and floral waters. They are also used in scented cosmetics. Fresh flowers provide an ingredient for teas, vinegars, jellies, jams and fruit curd, for decorating cakes and deserts.
Lonicera japonica is available from a number of Bahrain’s nurseries. If you grow one in your garden or balcony, you will find that its scent will magnetise you to it.
Elizabeth Shaheen – GDN – 29 July, ’07