Table Of ContentAMUR
HONEYSUCKLE
(LONICERA MAACKII;
ASCENT,
CAPRIFOLIACEAE):
ITS
AND
DECLINE, FALL
LUKEN JOHN THIERET
JAMES
W.
O. and
Department
Biological Sciences
of
Northern Kentucky University
KY
Highland 41099-0400, U.S.A.
Heights,
ar chronology of interaction bet
of arboreta, botanical gardens,
;
The
;ntual naturalization. specie
introduccion y eventual naturalizacion de esta planta. Se describe la biologia de esta especie,
how new
In an to understand non-indigenous plants occupy geo-
effort
graphic two processes have received the most attention: population
areas,
documented from herbarium 1985) and popula-
spread records (Forcella
as
(Mack 1985). Although most plant mvasions result from accidental or in-
human cultures and the historical and extant exchange systems contrib-
to
A
when
uting plant invasion. description of these systems, they operate
to
may
become
with plants that eventually escape and naturalized, be useful
understanding and extent of the invasion process.
for rates areal
We
150-year chronology of events that eventually led to
present here a
shrub Lomcera maackii
introduction and naturalization of the eastern Asiatic
Amur
North America.
Herder honeysuckle,
(Rupr.) (Caprifoliaceae), in
Throughout most of time maackii was highly valued in gardens and
this L.
conservation plantings. However, the tendency of the species to naturalize
woody
and spread beyond points of original introduction established as a
it
The documented
"weed" of concern eastern U.S. history of interaction
in
Amur The
between honeysuckle and people both extensive and varied.
is
may made
chronology given here be of value regulatory decisions are
as
about future plant introductions.
4S0
Sum
1995
16(3)
The
addition of L. mctcickii to the alien flora of North America can be
traced to three historical interactions between the plant and Homo
sapiens:
member
(1) Discover the plant, classify it, and describe it as a of the flora of
eastern Asia; Introduce the plant western
(2) to horticulture for attrac-
its
abundant showy
tive foliage, flowers, and and Use
fruits; the plant to
(3)
achieve conservation
goals, e.g., soil stabilization and/or wildlife-habitat
improvement. These
three interactions contributed widespread
to intro-
duction, thus necessitating fourth and remove
a final one: control or the
many
from
plant the biotic communities that have been invaded.
From
the Pacific to Western Europe: The Russian Role
mid
In the 9th century, Russian possessions in coastal eastern Asia were
1
all north of the 55th parallel, a somewhat less than hospitable region. To
extend more
their holdings into favorable areas, the Russians initiated a
of southward
series explorations into the relatively greener pastures of
Manchuria
(Bretschneider This
1898). area, then "but loosely held in the
feeble grasp of the Chinese government," had excellent harbors and abun-
Among
dant
resources, including timber. was
the targets the territory north
Amur
Amur
of the River and bounded by
that the and Ussuri
the
rivers,
Sea ofJapan, and the Korean frontier. Russia eventually annexed these lands
by treaty from China in 1858 and I860, thus extending domain south
its
to the latitude of present-day Vladivostok.
One
Amur
of the scientific expeditions sent to explore the valley of the
began
at Irkutsk in April 1855, returning Irkutsk months
to 9
later
Accompanying
(Bretschneider
1898). the expedition was
a naturalist, Ri-
Maack
chard
(1825-1886), professor in the Gymnasium of Irkutsk. Maack
is
remembered
name
today primarily in the of a genus of Fabaceae, Maackta,
and
in the specific epithets of several species, including one Lonkera.
in
Among
Maack Amur
the species that found along the in June was the
Amur
yet-to-be-described made
honeysuckle; he but
a single collection of
—
Range Amur
the plant in the Bureja north of the about midway between
Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk (Maximowwicz
1878; Ruprecht
1857).
His specimens woody
of plants from the trip were sent to Petersburg,
St.
where
they provided
the basis for part of the publication devoted
first to
plants of "Amurland" (Ruprecht Amur
1857), that area on both sides of the
between 42° and 55° north and 131° and 141° (Maximowicz
ca.
east 1859).
work
In that the honeysuckle was described new
as a species, Xylosteum
maackii, by Ruprecht (Ruprecht Maack
1857). (1859) gave an account of
Amur;
journey along work
his the
in this the published
is first illustration
Amur
(at least in western literature) of honeysuckle The
(Fig. species
1).
was
soon included Maximowicz's
in Pnmitiae florae Amurensis (Maximowicz
Amurland, Maximowicz's
1859), the flora of written after first trip
first
(1853-1857) to eastern Asia. Five years after publication of the flora, the
Herder (Herder
(Ruprecht)
species was transferred to Lonicera as L. maackti
1864).
Maximowicz did not see the plant in nature before he wrote Pnmitiae
However, expedition (1859-1864) he obtained
florae Amurensis. in a later
specimens of for St. Petersburg from five localities (Herder 1878): near
it
the mouth of the Amur, St. Olga Bay, and at three sites near Vladivostok.
t
i
We Maack
do not accept Bretschneider 1898) that "intro-
repc^rts (e.g.,
Boom
Petersburg Botanic Garden;
duced" L. maackii to culti ration at the St.
Wyman
Rehder (1949b), ind (1969) even date this event as "I860."
(1959),
We
conclude Maack did not bring seeds or living plants of L. maackii
that
to the Garden from eithe of his trips (1855, 1859). If he had brought back
•
much
blooming
such propagules, these would have produced plants earlier
than 1883, the date recorded in Gartenflora (Regel 1884) for the first Euro-
Petersburg Garden. This beginning
pean flowering of the plait, at the St.
Maack
was some 24
of the plant's ascent in western horticulture years after s
—
The comes not
return from eastern / species into flower in 3 to 5
last sia.
24—
The
from flowering of other eastern
years seed (Lo "enz et 1989).
al.
Maack
Asiatic woody plants raised from seeds that did send to St. Peters-
and was reported
burg Pyrus, Deutzta, Syringa) in
species oiClen'atis,
(e.g.,
the early 1860s (Bretschr eider 1898).
According Thatchei plants of L. maackii were introduced to
to (1922),
unknown—
Manchuria—
Petersburg from introducer in 1880; these
St.
plants could well have be;n the ones that came into flower in 1883. (That
Anonymous
were the introduced p "opagules was maintained by {1924}.)
seeds
Petersburg
Regel's (1884) report cf the flowering of L. maackii in St. in
works
1883 was soon translated abridged, and published in horticultural
England Anonyinous 1884a, 1884b; Nicholson 1888) and the
in
(e.g.,
United (Bailey 190 Davis 1899); the authors of these reports obvi-
States
3;
However, within decade
ously had not seen living ^^xamples of the plant. a
from
1884 morphological data obtainable only
deiailed
after the article,
Germany Koehne
were published (Dippel 1889; 1893), indi-
plants in
//i^^
German
1896 one nursery
cating cultivation in that country. In at least
grew maackn comm.). The National Botanic Gardens,
(Cole,
L. fers.
Amur
honeysuckle from
Dublin, purchased plants of
Glasnevin, Ireland,
The was
the French nursery Lemoiue in 1889 (Nelson, pers. comm.). plant
Kew
Gardens Ukraine 1898
cultivated at in 1896 (Royal 1896), in in
Garden Darmstadt, Germany,
(Kokhno 1986), and in the Botanical in in
1900 (Purpus 1900). The Purpus article contains the earliest photograph
known
of the species to us.
The European introductions almost
seeds or plants fcr these early
and garden there had long been receiving plant marerials by Rus-
collected
and
sian travellers in central eastern Asia. Duplicates of these collections
were sent to other major European botanical gardens (Bretschneider
1898).
many
As
botanical gardens do, the one Petersburg published annu-
at
St.
m
ally a list of seeds available; L. maackii appeared the garden's
first
list, its
Delectus seminum, in 1887 (Hortus Botanicus Imperialis Petropolitanus
1887).
Amur
Within
a few decades, honeysuckle was growing
in botanical gar-
much
dens through
of Europe. Seeds of the plant eventually were
offered in
the seed lists of various European gardens for the time in the following
first
years: Cambridge, 1913 (Cambridge University Botanic Garden
1913);
Oslo, 1917 (Universitet Botanske Have 1917); Dublin, 1919 (Royal Botanic
Gardens, Dublin, Copenhagen, 1924
1919); (Horto
Universitatis
Hauniensis 1924); Edinburgh, 1924 (Royal Botanic Garden, Edmburgh,
Amsterdam,
1924); 1929 Qardin Botanique de I'Umversite d'Amsterdam
and (Museum
1929); Pans, 1931 d'Histoire Naturelle
1931).
From
Western The
the Europe:
Pacific to English Role
The
earliest recorded observation of L. maackii by a European not that
is
Maack
of but appears to be that of Robert Fortune, who the mid 1840s
in
collected the species in China. Where in China the specimen came from,
Amoy
somewhere
either or in "northern China," has been matter of de-
a
The
specimen Kew) "34"
bate. (two sheets at has but scant data: "A" and
Bretschneider
(Fig. (1894, 1898) concluded "A"
2). that the stands
for
Amoy,
which Fortune did indeed The specimen may
visit. well have been
much
collected in a garden because Fortune spent time searching gardens
new
for plants to introduce Europe.
to
Anonymous
Several authors
(e.g.. 1929, 1934; Bean 1973; Thatcher
Wilson
1922; 1929) maintained
that the first introduction of L. maackii
into Great Britain was in 1900 by E.H. Wilson; was one of the species he
it
collected China during
in his first trip there for the James Veitch Nursery.
We
were, however, unable to reconcile this date and method of introduc-
with
tion the statement Bretschneider
in (1898) that the Petersburg
St.
Garden
sent to the "greater botanical institutions Europe and America,
in
Kew"
especially to (italics ours), seeds and plants and also duplicate speci-
mens
from
the collections received from and
it central eastern Asia. Be-
cause L. maackii was growing at St. Petersburg since about 1880 and was
first listed in the Garden's Delectus semtnum 1887, we wondered why
in
Kew
propagules of the plant had not been
sent to before 1900. After read-
ing in Truelove (1917) that L. maackii was "1894" Kew
listed in in the
"Hand-List and Shrubs" we
of Trees finally obtained a copy of that work
485
LUKEN AND Thieret, Lonicera maackii
1896 volume the one of concern) and found that L.
(date actually for 2,
We
maackii indeed listed there (Royal Gardens 1896). suggest that seeds
is
Kew
from Petersburg were sent to some time before 1896 and that the
St.
among
plant or plants from those seeds languished, unheralded, their con-
geners the garden. However, what might be called the "effective" intro-
in
1900 by Wilson
duction of L. maackit into Britain was apparently that in
Veitch which then extolled and disseminated in Britain
the nursery, it
for
Once propaganda machine was
Veitch ac-
and elsewhere (Allan 1974). the
many
horticultural
tivated in behalf, the plant received notices in lit-
its
The company
North America.
largely favorable until recently in
erature,
Amur
meeting Royal Hor-
exhibited specimens of honeysuckle at a of the
Award
1907 where they received an of Merit (Floral
ticultural Society in
made
Anonymous drawing
Committee {19151 of L. maack'u
1908; see for a
A
award was bestowed on the
from 1907 Veitch specimens.). similar
the
Amur
Committee honeysuckle was one of the
1915 1916).
plant in (Floral
made
such double award had been
few plants which, until that time, a
to
European
(Truelove 1917). Early mentions of the plant in continental peri-
photograph
with sup-
include one the Belgian Tribune Hortkole, a
odicals in
plied by Veitch (Anonymous 1909), and one in the French Revue Horticole,
through
France apparently the
reporting introduction of the species into
United
agency of Veitch (Mottet 1907). Veitch sent seeds of the plant to the
1908 (U.S.D.A.
Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) as early as
States
1909).
From and Western Europe North America
the Pacific to
Amur we
The North American record of honeysuckle have lo-
earliest
Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa: plants were
cated in archives of the re-
is
Germany comm.).
1896 from Spaeth Nurseries in (Cole, pers.
ceived there in
New
York Botanical Garden:
The U.S. record in archives of the
first is
Amur 1898
honeysuckle from Russia were accessioned there in
of
seeds
comm.)
(Table
(Riggs, pers.
1).
This U.S. record of L. maackii came about through the agency of the
first
Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction (S.PI.)
then newly organized Section of
which was mandated procure, propagate, and distrib-
U.S.D.A., to
of the
new and 1897 the U.S.D.A. dispatched
and valuable seeds plants. In
ute
Hansen an agricultural explorer to Russia in search of cold-
Niels E. as
The U.S.D.A., extended
Hansen's the
hardy forage plants. trip, first for
from June 1897 to March 1898 (Hansen 1909; Taylor 1941). Unilaterally
Hansen about accessions of forage, shrub,
expanding charge, sent 9.30
his
Washington, DC, between December 1897 and June 1898
and
tree seeds to
(U.S.D.A. 1899a, 1899b). Some of the seeds were delivered before facili-
and dissemination (Fairchild 1938).
were ready their storage
for
ties
486
SiDA 1995
16(3)
Distribution of seeds received by the Section was started soon after they
One
were Washington.
received at of the recipients of seeds was the
first
New
York
Botanical Garden: the "PIE" in the 1898 entry for L. maackii in
Garden
the archives indicated one of the "Plant Introduction Experi-
first
ments"—
seed distributions— by
initiated the S.RI.
i.e.,
The
and
seeds plants imported by the were numbered consecu-
S.P.I,
tively starting in "Inventory No. 1," 1898. Hansen's
collections are listed
in the two inventories (U.S.D.A. 1899a, 1899b). The data number
first for
246 From
in Inventory are "Lonkera maackii. Russia. Received through
I
A
N.E. Hansen, December, 1897."
Prof. similar entry, dated January 1898,
number Amur
391
is in this first inventory. Seeds of honeysuckle were thus
among
few hundred
the accessions received by the
first S.P.I.
The
geographical origin of the seeds of L. maackii sent by Hansen an
is
intriguing mystery. According to the inventory data (U.S.D.A. 1899a,
1899b), the sources of Hansen's collections seemed have spanned much
to
of Russia from Petersburg and Odessa most
St. to the Pacific. Origins of of
Amur
the seeds, including those of honeysuckle, given broad
are in terms,
simply "from More
often Russia." exact data are given for a few species:
some came
from {now
"Sea Province Primorski Krai Maritime
or Terri-
tory], South Ussurie, Siberia" and some from "Amur." However,
in spite of
data indicating far eastern Russia, Hansen's 1897-1898 journey did
not
extend
into that part of Asia.
The
Russian segment of his journey began and ended Petersburg
at St.
Omsk
via Tashkent, Semipalatinsk, and (Taylor 1941). Apparently the
far-
when
thest east he travelled was he visited Kuldja (or Kulja; also known
as
Gulja, Ining, and Yining), a Chinese city in western Sinkiang within 50
ca.
miles from the Russian border. (A rather difficult-to-interpret map show-
ing the routes of Hansen's several Asiatic trips was published in Hansen
[1909]).
Even though
the exact western Chinese range of L. maackii uncertain,
is
known
the species not to occur in that small portion of China by
is visited
Wang
Hansen 1897-1898 (Hsu and The Wash-
in 1988). seeds he sent to
ington, then, must have come from some
botanical garden,
forestry
sta-
such establishments whenever he had the opportunity. For example,
in
August
1897 he was at the Petersburg Garden (U.S.D.A. 1899b);
St. seeds
Amur
of honeysuckle certainly were available to him there from the stock
maintained by Garden
the exchange.
for
Thinking that Hansen's seeds marked simply "from Russia" might have
been obtained from Petersburg, we obtained photocopy
St. a of the garden's
1897—
1899 Delectus seminum (the Delectm for the year of Hansen's
visit
there—
and 1898 were The
for not available to (Hortus Botanicus
us). list
LuKEN AND Thieret, Loniccra maackii 487
number
Imperialis Petropolitanus 1899) contains a most impressive of en-
—
among
some 3000 them; some represented Hansen's
of of the species
tries
seeds are in the Delectus, but most are not. Lonkera maackii is there, as it is
in the 1887 Delectus. St. Petersburg, then, could have been the source of
Amur come from some
Hansen's honeysuckle but they could have
seeds,
Amur
Hansen U.S.D.A. imported
introduced honeysuckle, the
After
it
through
from foreign countries and released in the U.S. at least eight times
it
1927 (Table Some of the introductions were from British botanical gar-
1).
dens; others were collected from native habitats in Manchuria by U.S.D.A.
employees. The success of this introduction effort was indicated by the fact
Amur commer-
from
1931 honeysuckle was available at least eight
that in
The
nurseries throughout the U.S. (Partington 1931). history of intro-
cial
honeysuckle
duction published by the U.S.D.A. indicates that plants of the
now naturalized throughout eastern U.S. represent a mixture of genotypes
of diverse origins.
Beginning 1960s and culminating introductions
in the in five official
sponsored
up to 1984, the U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service (S.C.S) a
Amur
was hoped
program to develop improved cultivars of honeysuckle. It
would
that these cultivars further traditional goals of the S.C.S. soil stabi-
:
From
and improvement. plants already
lization/reclamation wildlife-habitat
more
naturalized in various parts of the U.S., genotypes were selected for
abundant production, propagated vegetatively, and then cultivated in
fruit
production blocks various plant materials centers around the coun-
seed at
made The
(Sharp and Belcher 1981). Seeds were available by request.
try
most successful of these cultivars 'Rem-Red' (Lorenz et al. 1989).
is
AMUR and naturalization
honeysuckle: escape
New
World
In the
New
World
The hint we have located of the plant's escape in the
earliest
Morton Arboretum Chicago, which mention
near
archives of the its
in
is
when
brought
weedy tendencies: "weed in arboretum since 1924, first in"
Morton
(Swink, comm.). This early hint of the plant's decline in favor at
pers.
has accelerated toward a the current situation there being well stated
fall,
by Swink and Wilhelm (1994): "It would be difficult to exaggerate the
Swink remarked
weedy potential of this shrub." Floyd has to us that the
would
arboretum "unbelievable take a
spread of L. maackii in the
is ... it
Amur
Rhamnus under
worker keep honeysuckle and cathartica
full-time to
control."
A Amur
would keep honey-
host of full-time workers be required to
suckle "under control" in the Greater Cincinnati region (including far north-
Ohio Lucy
ern Kentucky) from which the plant was reported for by E.
first
Braun from Hamilton
(1961) only County, where was "becoming abun-
it
dant in pastures and woodlands." (As of October 1994 specimens have been
Ohio
collected in 34 counties {Trisel, pers. comm.}). In Greater Cincinnati
now
the plant omnipresent, being by commonest
is far the area's shrub,
—
—
native or alien. Efforts in part thwarted by birds being made by
are
various governmental
agencies to eliminate the species from woodlands
and The
other sites. plant's establishment has been short of phenom-
little
The
enal. species ubiquitous, and often abundant, on open and
is slopes in
fencerows, pastures, thin woods, woodland
prairies, borders, road rights-
When
of-way, railroad yards, and waste moved
places. the junior author
home
KY) Amur
into his in Alexandria (Campbell County, no
in 1973,
Now
honeysuckle was on
the property. hundreds of individuals
are there.
We
conducted
a survey of selected botanical gardens and
arboreta in the
eastern United States and in eastern and western Canada. Although many
who
and
botanists arborists responded noted that L. maackii was natural-
ized, the species was considered a problem weed only in the following
lo-
DC;
National Arboretum, Morton Arboretum,
calities: Butler Univer-
IL;
IN; Bernheim KY;
Matthei
sity, Forest, Botanical Gardens, MI; Beal
W.J.
MO;
Botanic Gardens, MI; Shaw Arboretum, Morris Arboretum, PA; Core
WV.
Arboretum, The may
Edmonton
species not be winter hardy and
at
Amur
Montreal. Non-cultivated known
plants of honeysuckle
are currently
24
in at least states of the eastern U.S. (Trisel and Gorchov 1994) and in
Ontario
(Pringle 1973).
