''Lonicera fragrantissima'' is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family

Caprifoliaceae The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species, in 33, to 42 genera, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution. Centres of diversity are found in eastern North America an ...

, known by the common names winter-flowering honeysuckle, fragrant honeysuckle, kiss-me-at-the-gate, and sweet breath of spring. It is native to China and has been an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

to other parts of the world. It was brought to the attention of western gardeners by Scottish plant hunter

Robert Fortune Robert Fortune (16 September 1812 – 13 April 1880) was a Scottish botanist, plant hunter and traveller, best known for introducing around 250 new ornamental plants, mainly from China, but also Japan, into the gardens of Britain, Australia, an ...

, who was plant hunting in China for the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

. Fortune introduced ''Lonicera fragrantissima'' to England in 1845, and a few years later it was introduced to the United States. In 1853 the editor of American gardening magazine ''The Horticulturist'' wrote that the previous year he had been sent a specimen from a plant that had been flowering in the gardens of

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cec ...

, the Marquess of Salisbury's stately home in Hertfordshire. The first mention of a specimen for commercial sale in an American plant catalogue is in 1860. The honeysuckle is used as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

for its fragrant flowers. In some parts of the world, where conditions are right, when it moves out of cultivation and takes hold in the wild, it can become an invasive weed.Munger, Gregory T. (2005)
''Lonicera'' spp.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Retrieved January 18, 2012. This

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae, native to northern latitudes in North America and Eurasia. Approximately 180 species of honeysuckle have been identified in both conti ...

, a species of "bush honeysuckle", is a shrub usually growing tall, sometimes reaching a maximum height around . When mature it is a bushy tangle of slender, spreading branches. The leaves are up to long by wide. The flowers, borne in pairs, are each about long. They are white to "creamy white" in color.''Lonicera fragrantissima''.
Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved January 18, 2012. They are very fragrant, with a "lemony" scent. The fruit is a red berry up to a centimeter wide. The seeds are dispersed by animals that eat the fruits. The seeds must be stratified before they will

germinate Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...

. This plant, considered a "harbinger of spring", is grown for ornamental purposes and as a

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoin ...

. It can be found growing in the wild in parts of the eastern United States from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

to New York to the southeastern states. It has also been observed in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q159652 fragrantissima Flora of China