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Lonicera etrusca Santi

Eng.: Etruscan honeysuckle.   Spa.: Madreselva.   Fre.: Chèvrefeuille d’Etrurie.   Ara.: Soltan el ghaba, jummet el feta, chahmet el atrus.   Tam : Uaraf, aharaf, irifi, adjeben-n-Maddar.

Semideciduous shrub, hermaphrodite, ramose, up to 3 m in height. Main stem tortuous with fissured bark, promptly branched. Branches sarmentose, bark ± smooth in younger branches. Branchlets with reddish bark, covered with short hairs that fall off with age. Leaves (3-10 cm long) opposite, lower and middle leaves with short petiole, upper leaves fuse progressively towards the end of the branchlet, with the last pair of leaves completely fused forming a single elliptical leaf that grows around the apex of the branchlet. Leaves that are not fused are from elliptical to ovate, with entire margin, green and almost hairless on the upper side, villous and slightly lighter on the underside. Leaves that are fused form an ellipse with the branchlet that transverse it through the centre. Flowers elongated, tubular (3-5 cm long), sessile, arranged around terminal glomeruli longly pedunculated, solitary or in groups of 3, which are borne on the last pair of fused leaves. Ovary ovoid with a minute calyx with 5 small subacute teeth. Corolla tubuliform, yellowish-white on the inside, with reddish tones on the outside, irregular, with 2 very different lips: lower lip elongated and pendant, and upper lip formed by 4 shorter and erect petals. Stamens 5. Style and stamens exserted from the corolla tube. Fruit an ovoid-rounded berry, red when mature.