Leycesteria formosa Wallich, Caprifoliaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 18 (Go to the risk assessment)

Common name(s): [more details]

Chinese: gui chui xiao

English: Himalaya-honeysuckle, Himalayan honeysuckle

Habit:  shrub

Description:  "Shrubs, 1-5 m tall. Branches hollow, branchlets, petioles, peduncles, bracts, and sepals adpressed pubescent and sometimes glandular hairy. Petiole 5-15 mm; leaf blade ovate to lanceolate, 4-13 x 2-6 cm, both surfaces glabrescent to sparsely adpressed pubescent, base cuneate to subcordate, margin entire to dentate, occasionally irregularly sinuate, apex acuminate to caudate. Inflorescence terminal or axillary; peduncle 6-30 mm. Whorls 1-10, each whorl composed of 2 opposite sessile, 3-flowered cymes subtended by green, purplish, or purple-red leaflike involucral bracts and bracts; involucral pair of bracts up to 2.5 cm, 4 outer bracts narrower and shorter, 8 inner bracts very small. Ovary oblong, 3-4 mm, densely glandular hairy. Calyx shortly fused at base, sometimes to half way; lobes lanceolate to linear, sometimes deltoid, 1-9 mm. Corolla white to pink, sometimes purple-red, funnelform, 1.2-1.8 cm, outside pubescent; lobes orbicular-ovate, ca. 5 mm. Stamens subequaling corolla. Ovary 5-locular; style slightly exceeding corolla, glabrous. Berry red, turning black-purple, ovoid or subglobose, with persistent calyx, 5-7 mm in diameter; seeds minute, numerous, brownish, broadly ellipsoid to oblong, slightly compressed, ca. 1 mm"  (Flora of China online).

Habitat/ecology:  In China (native), "forests, forest margins, scrub; 1100-3500 m"  (Flora of China online).  In New Zealand, "scrubland, riverbanks, lakesides, forest margins, especially common in cut-over forest"  (Webb et al., 1988; p. 465).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Bhutan, China, northern India, Myanmar, Nepal, northeastern Pakistan; cultivated and naturalized elsewhere (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	New South Wales	introduced invasive cultivated	National Herbarium of New South Wales (2011) Cultivated, rarely naturalized in the Blue Mountains and near Khancoban.
China China	China (People's Republic of)	native	Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong (2011) W Guizhou, W Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive	Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. (1988) (p. 465)
United States (west coast) United States (west coast states)	USA (California)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)

Additional information:
Information from Weeds Australia.
Information from Weedbusters, New Zealand.

Additional online information about Leycesteria formosa is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Leycesteria formosa as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Leycesteria formosa may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

National Herbarium of New South Wales. 2011. PlantNet: New South Wales Flora online. The Plant Information Network System of the Botanic Gardens Trust Version 2.0. Online resource.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2011. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. 1988. Flora of New Zealand, Volume IV: Naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons. Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch. 1365 pp.

Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong. 2011. Flora of China (online resource).