Lonicera japonica Thunb.
Chinese Honeysuckle, Chinese honeysuckle, Gold-and-silver-flower, Golden-and-silver Honeysuckle
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Lonicera japonica, known as Japanese honeysuckle and golden-and-silver honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle native to East Asia, including many parts of China. It is often grown as an ornamental plant, but has become an invasive species in a number of countries. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Text from Wikipedia, “Lonicera japonica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Lonicera
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the genus Lonicera of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa.
Text from Wikipedia, “Honeysuckle”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Caprifolium brachypodum G.Gordon; Caprifolium brachypodum Godr.; Caprifolium chinense S.Watson; Caprifolium chinense S.Watson ex G.Don; Caprifolium chinense S.Watson ex Loudon and 45 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1165 mm of 1521 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.8 °C against a yearly mean of 14.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1521 mm a year, wettest July at 267 mm, driest December at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1521 mm a year at the habitat, 1165 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 267 mm, driest December at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1058 mm to 2530 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -4.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.4 °C, the absolute minimum -11.5 °C, about 47 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.0 °C to 6.1 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 6 / 0–13 | 8 / 3–14 | 11 / 8–17 | 17 / 13–22 | 21 / 17–26 | 25 / 21–29 | 27 / 24–31 | 28 / 26–31 | 24 / 22–28 | 19 / 17–23 | 14 / 10–19 | 9 / 3–15 |
| Night °C | -0 / -9–6 | 1 / -6–8 | 4 / -2–11 | 10 / 5–16 | 14 / 10–19 | 18 / 15–23 | 22 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 19 / 15–22 | 14 / 8–18 | 7 / 1–13 | 2 / -6–8 |
| Rain mm | 42 / 19–93 | 55 / 24–116 | 87 / 42–189 | 119 / 61–205 | 141 / 89–252 | 202 / 125–334 | 267 / 154–399 | 260 / 140–360 | 176 / 93–303 | 80 / 48–206 | 57 / 34–127 | 35 / 18–76 |
| DLI | 17 / 14–19 | 22 / 18–24 | 28 / 22–30 | 34 / 27–36 | 36 / 30–37 | 34 / 29–36 | 32 / 28–36 | 31 / 28–35 | 27 / 24–29 | 24 / 19–25 | 17 / 16–20 | 15 / 14–18 |
| RH % | 57 / 53–63 | 57 / 54–64 | 58 / 55–64 | 59 / 54–64 | 61 / 56–65 | 64 / 60–68 | 67 / 62–72 | 66 / 62–69 | 62 / 60–66 | 59 / 57–64 | 58 / 55–63 | 57 / 54–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 135 grid cells holding the 145 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1139:5765 (33.025, 108.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 135 distinct grid cells holding the 145 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1139:5765 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_108.125, lapse-corrected -392 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 471 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Millie Basden, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Will Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Chris Chimaera, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Lonicera japonica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Chrysanthemum indicum Indian Chrysanthemum
Liriope muscari Big Blue Lilyturf
Liriope spicata Creeping Lilyturf
Callicarpa dichotoma Purple Beauty-berry
Ophiopogon japonicus Dwarf Lily-turf
Clematis terniflora Japanese clematisOther Lonicera 11 in the reference
Lonicera caerulea Blue-berried Honeysuckle
Lonicera caprifolium Italian honeysuckle
Lonicera fragrantissima Fragrant Honeysuckle
Lonicera involucrata Bearberry Honeysuckle
Lonicera ligustrina Boxleaf Honeysuckle
Lonicera maackii Amur Honeysuckle
Lonicera morrowii Asian fly-honeysuckle
Lonicera periclymenum European honeysuckle
Lonicera sempervirens Trumpet Honeysuckle
Lonicera tatarica Tartarian Honeysuckle
Lonicera xylosteum Dwarf honeysuckle History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 171 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








