Thursday, April 16, 2015

Calling all Mappers! Japanese Honeysuckle is Blooming!

While out walking on Sunday I noticed that the Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is in full bloom here in south Georgia! Seemingly out of nowhere, the days have gotten longer and the temperature has started to really creep up.

Japanese honeysuckle is an invasive flowering vine that has taken over large swathes of the U.S.  It has opposite leaves and flowers.  The flowers occur in pairs at the leaf axils and will often turn from white to a soft yellow as they age.

Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) by Rebekah D. Wallace, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org

EDDMapS is Bugwood's website for mapping and reporting invasive species nationwide.  It includes data from all types of sources, herbariums to homeowners and federal agencies to citizen scientist programs.  It relies on accurate and quality reports of invasive species occurrences to fill in the maps  and to show a complete distribution of a species.  As Japanese honeysuckle is most easily seen when it is flowering, help us fill in the gaps on the map in the next several weeks!


The easiest way to report where you find Japanese honeysuckle is to use one of the BugwoodApps! The SEEDN app is an app for reporting invasive species occurrences for the southeastern U.S. and is available on iOS (Apple products) and Android devices. If you don't have a smartphone, tablet, or other such device, you can report findings through EDDMapS. Remember to take a picture of the plants you find with your report! Once your reports are verified, it will color in the map where data is currently missing. Happy scouting!


To view distribution maps of Japanese honeysuckle: Japanese honeysuckle distribution
For identification information and other resources on Japanese honeysuckle: Japanese honeysuckle information
To view images of Japanese honeysuckle: Japanese honeysuckle images