Birth flower
Honeysuckle
Lonicera. In the language of flowers, as lists print it today, it stands for bonds of affection. Kate Greenaway's dictionary of 1884 gives it another: “Generous and devoted affection”. It is a custom of sentiment, not a scientific or official designation.
- Latin name
- Lonicera
- Month
- June
- Meaning today
- bonds of affectionNot the reading of 1884: Kate Greenaway gives “Generous and devoted affection”.
The plant itself
Lonicera is a genus. The figures below are for one species of it, Lonicera periclymenum, the common honeysuckle or woodbine.
| Family | Caprifoliaceae |
|---|---|
| Native to | Europe and Morocco |
| Habit | climber |
| Height | 4–8 m |
| Flowers | mid and late summer |
Its flowers are strongly scented at night and much less so by day, and it is usually pollinated by moths or long-tongued bees; the red berries that follow are eaten by thrushes, bullfinches and warblers.
Where the names come from
Old English hunigsuge, literally honey-suck, may have meant honeysuckle, clover, wild thyme or privet. The form hunisuccle is first recorded around 1300 for clover, and by about 1400 the name had settled on the scented climber, because bees and people can suck honey from its flowers. The genus name, Lonicera, is New Latin, after Adam Lonitzer, a sixteenth-century German botanist who wrote as Lonicerus and whose herbal, the Kreuterbuch, was reprinted again and again between 1557 and 1783. The species name, periclymenum, is the ancient Greek name for the plant.
Where the meaning is written down
- As the dictionary prints it
- Generous and devoted affectionUnder the heading “Honeysuckle” in Kate Greenaway, Language of Flowers, 1884.
- As lists print it today
- Bonds of affectionA different reading from the entry quoted here; the note below says where it differs.
Greenaway's index is inconsistent: "generous and devoted affection" is listed against the plain honeysuckle in one place and against the French honeysuckle, a different plant, in another. She also has an entry for woodbine, another name for this species: "fraternal love". The modern "bonds of affection" is none of these; it is the gloss she gives the gillyflower.
Is it poisonous?
The RHS states that the red berries are ornamental and not to be eaten, by people or by pets; no authoritative source consulted names the compound responsible.
Each finding above names who made it: the ASPCA's poisonous plant database, the Royal Horticultural Society's harm ratings, or a published report. This is general information and not veterinary advice — if an animal or a person has eaten part of a plant, ring a vet or a poison line rather than reading a website.