When Does Honeysuckle Bloom? An Introduction to Its Blooming Period
The scientific name of honeysuckle is Lonicera japonica. Medicinal honeysuckle consists of the dried flower buds or newly opened flowers of Lonicera japonica and plants of the same genus in the Caprifoliaceae family. Since ancient times it has been praised as an excellent medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying, able both to disperse wind-heat and to effectively clear blood toxins. It has significant effects on various heat-related illnesses such as fever, rash, eruptions, heat-toxin sores and carbuncles, and sore, swollen throat. Let us take a look below at when honeysuckle blooms!
When Does Honeysuckle Bloom?
Honeysuckle generally begins blooming in late May and finishes around mid-October, with a blooming period of about 150 days. Usually the first flush of flowers is in late May, the second flush in mid-to-late July, the third flush in mid-August, and the fourth flush in mid-October, with each flush lasting about 7 days. The common peduncle of honeysuckle is usually solitary in the leaf axils of the upper part of the branchlets, equal to or slightly shorter than the petiole. The corolla is white, sometimes slightly reddish on the sun-facing side at the base, later turning yellow, labiate, with the tube slightly longer than the lip, and fragrant.
Where Is Honeysuckle Produced?
Honeysuckle is highly adaptable. It likes sun and tolerates shade, is strongly cold-resistant, and also tolerates drought and waterlogging. It is not demanding about soil, but grows best in moist, fertile, deep sandy loam. It sends out new shoots twice a year, in spring and summer. It is distributed in every province of China, mostly growing wild in relatively moist areas. The main cultivation regions are concentrated in Shandong, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places, among which Pingyi County, Linyi City, Shandong Province is the main producing area of honeysuckle. It is also distributed in Korea and Japan, and in North America it has escaped cultivation to become a difficult-to-eradicate weed.
The Benefits and Effects of Honeysuckle
1. Clearing heat and detoxifying: Honeysuckle has a neutral nature, and its heat-clearing and detoxifying effects are very pronounced. In the hot summer, you can often drink honeysuckle steeped in water; it not only has a cooling effect, but also does a good job of boosting alertness, leaving the body feeling refreshed.
2. Cleansing the blood and eliminating toxins: Drinking honeysuckle tea can help the body promptly clear fats and harmful substances from the blood, increase blood flow in the vessels, and effectively prevent dangerous cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction.
3. Preventing flu: Research has found that honeysuckle can inhibit and resist a variety of bacteria that cause colds. Drinking it can increase our antiviral capacity and boost the body's immunity; it can truly be called the “Chinese herbal antibiotic” of traditional Chinese medicine.
4. Dispersing heat and dispelling pathogens: Honeysuckle steeped in water has a certain effect on externally contracted wind-heat or the early stages of warm disease, with symptoms such as fever and headache, restlessness and poor sleep, clouded spirit and crimson tongue, and dry throat and mouth.
5. Cooling the blood and stopping dysentery: Honeysuckle steeped in water has the effects of detoxifying, stopping dysentery, cooling the blood and soothing the throat for heat-toxin dysentery, dysentery with pus and blood, damp-warm disease obstructing the throat, and sore, swollen throat.
6. Antibacterial and anti-inflammatory: Honeysuckle contains a substance that can effectively inhibit dysentery, typhoid, meningococcus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, hemolytic streptococcus, and influenza viruses, among others. After entering the body, it can effectively promote the release of adrenal cortex hormones, which have a good inhibitory effect on various inflammations and swollen, painful conditions.