See also Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens; French honeysuckle, Sulla coronaria; and Wild honeysuckle, Kalmia procumbens, formerly Azalea.

☙ Honeysuckle

a.k.a. woodbine.

Fruits poisonous if consumed; may cause irritation with skin contact.

Genus Lonicera L. (1753). WFO

Period Breton (brezhoneg): gwezvoud [sic = 'gwivoud', for L. periclymenum but appears in contemporary dictionaries for the genus] ?. LB

Period Dutch: kamperfolie [sic] c. RT:FFF

Period English: honeysuckle.

L. periclymenum: woodbine [although the two can be interchangeable - see notes.]

Period French: chèvrefeuille (chèvre-feuille, BD chevrefeuille LB RT:FFF) m. ('goat-leaf', from a folk belief that young goats grazed upon and became intoxicated eating the shoots); CLT LA-M chamérisier m. FDE

L. caprifolium: chèvre-feuille des jardins m. ('garden honeysuckle'). CLT

L. periclymenum: Formal: chevrefeuille des bois m. ('woods honeysuckle'). LB Colloquial: broute-biquet m. ('kid-grazing', ie young goats, see above); LB chevrefin ?. ('goat-?'); LB crauquilier [sic] ?. (poss. related to 'craquelure', 'hairline cracks', therefore 'crack-creator'?); LB suçot ?. (poss via 'sucer', therefore 'sucker'?). LB

Period German: Geißblatt (Geissblatt JRV LB; 'Das geisblatt' RT:FFF) n. ('goat-leaf'); PFC Jelängerjelieber [sic = Je länger je lieber) n. ('the longer, the better'). JRV

Period Italian: madreselva f.; RT:FFF Vinci bosco m. ('Vinci-wood'?). LB

Period Portuguese: madresylva f. [sic, now 'madressilva']. RT:FFF

Period Spanish: madreselva f. RT:FFF

Plantagenet English:

Honeysuckle: Hony Socle; Abiago. (Promptorium Parvulorum 1440). HNE

Woodbine: Woode Bynde; Caprifolium, vicicella (Promptorium Parvulorum 1440) Wodde bynde; terebinthus (Catholicon Anglicum 1483). HNE

Tudor English:

Honeysuckle: Honysyccles (Turner 1548, 1568). HNE

Woodbine: Wodbynde (Turner 1548, 1568). HNE

Elizabethian English: Woodbinde or Honisuckles; Wood-bind or Honeysuckle (Gerard 1568, 1597). HNE

Stuart English: Chevre-feuille; The Wood-bind or Honie-suckle (Cotgrave 1611). HNE

Sentiments:

🏶︎ Liens d'amourTies of love ◼︎ (1811-1825); BD CLT LA-M

 Bonds of love ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1869); HP:FE TTA CHW FSO LH S&K HGA:OT HGA:LPF RT:LOF

 Ties of love ▲︎ (1836); TTA

🏶︎ Fidelity ▲︎ (1829-1853); DLD LG

🏶︎ I would not answer hastily ▲︎ (1832); EWW

🏶︎ Generous and devoted affection ▲︎◆︎ (1839-1884); FS GAL KG

 Devoted affection ▲︎ (1840); TM

🏶︎ Darf ich noch hoffen?May I still hope? ●︎ ︎(c.1880). JRV

L. periclymenum, 'Variegated-leaf' specified:

This may just be a colloquial name for L. periclymenum as a whole, but also may be a variety.

🏶︎ Fraternal love ▲︎ (1832-1845); EWW SJH O&B S&K

'Woodbine', L. periclymenum:

🏶︎ Fraternal love ▲︎◆︎ (1853-1884); LG HGA:LPF GAL KG

 Paternal love ◆︎ (pre-1871); JS (Likely a typo.)

🏶︎ Ich liebe ewig — nur dich.I love forever — only you. ●︎ ︎(c.1880). JRV

'Monthly honeysuckle', as yet unidentified, but compare above:

🏶︎ Bond of love ◆︎ (pre-1871); JS

🏶︎ Domestic happiness ◆︎ (pre-1871) JS Compare French honeysuckle;

🏶︎ I would not answer hastily ◆︎ (pre-1871); JS

Region:

L. caprifolium:

Native: European - North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Turkey and Turkey-in-Europe, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia.WFO

Introduced: Uzbekistan, Krym, South European Russia, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, the Dominican Republic, Haiti.WFO

L. periclymenum:

Native: European - Morocco, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Albania, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain.WFO

Introduced: Falkland Islands, Tasmania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Maine, Oregon, Washington.WFO

L. xylosteum:

Native: European - widely across temperate Europe and Western Asia.WFO

Introduced: Great Britain, temperate Eastern North America, Oregon, Washington.WFO

Seasonality: Deciduous perennials; L. xylosteum flowers first in late spring to early summer, fruiting late summer; L. caprifolium follows with flowers in summer and fruits in autumn; and L. periclymenum is last, flowering mid-late summer and fruiting in autumn.

Period Colours:

We have two native species (Lonicera periclymenum and L. xylosteum), and there are about eighty exotic species, but none of them sweeter or prettier than our own, which, besides its fragrant flowers, has pretty, fleshy, red fruit.
 — Ellacombe, 1884 (127).

L. periclymenum:

Flowers white or pale red. Very fragrant.
 — Hale, 1832 (190-191).

Calendar:

🏶︎ 3 May - In Fabre d'Églantine's 1793 rural emblem annex to the French Republican calendar, Chamérisier is the emblem of 14 Floréal (3 May). This term can refer to several species of Lonicera, including L. periclymenum and L. xylosteum.

Heraldry:

Noted as 'rarely' found in arms in James Parker's glossary. Three examples follow:

Sable, on a fesse or between three honeysuckles argent two lions passant azure--MASTER, co. Wilts.

Azure, three woodbine leaves argent--BROWNE.

Azure, three woodbine leaves bendways vert two and one--THEME.

Emblems: TBC.

Cultural and Religious: TBC.

Cited Species:

🏶︎ Lonicera caprifolium L. (1753) WFO BD CLT perfoliate honeysuckle, Italian woodbine, or goat-leaf honeysuckle.

🏶︎ Lonicera periclymenum L. (1753) WFO SJH HNE common honeysuckle;

 = Caprifolium periclymenum Delarbre (1800). WFO RT:LOF

🏶︎ Lonicera xylosteum L. (1753) WFO HNE fly honeysuckle.

Cited Verse:

❧ 'τῶ περὶ μὲν χείλη μαρύεται ὑψόθι κισσός, / κισσὸς ἑλιχρύσῳ κεκονιμένος: ἁ δὲ κατ᾽αὐτὸν / καρπῷ ἕλιξ εἱλεῖται ἀγαλλομένα κροκόεντι.', 'Idyll I', Theocritus, Εἰδύλλια (Idylls), (c.300-260 BCE) Theoc. Id. 1. ll.30-33 Read Here, and see below for English translation by Calverley; HNE

❧ 'And tho that weare chapelets on ther hede / Of fresh woodbind, be such as never were / To love untrue in word, thought, ne dede, / But aye stedfast; ne for pleasance, ne fere, / Thogh that they shuld their harts all to-tere, / Would never flit, but ever were stedfast, / Till that their lives there asunder brast.', unknown (formerly attributed to ◆︎ Geoffrey Chaucer), The Floure and the Leafe (c.1470) ll.484-490 Read Here; SJH HNE

❧ 'Oh how ſwete and pleaſaunte is woodbinde, in woodes or Arbours, after a tender ſoft rain: and how frendly doe this herbe if I maie ſo name it, imbrace the bodies, armes and branches of trees, with his long windyng ſtalkes, and tender leaves, openyng or ſreding forthe his ſwete Lillis, like ladies fingers, emōg the thornes or bushes. Is this woodbine ſo profitable, as pleaſaunt. I praie you tell me.', (with more information in its reply), 'The booke of Simples', ◆︎ William Bullein, Bullein's Bulwarke of defēce againſte all Sicknes, Sornes, and woundes, that dooe daily aſſaulte mankinde, whiche Bulwarke is kepte with Hillarins the Gardiner, Health the Phiſician, with their Chyrurgian,to helpe the wounded ſoldiors, London: Jhon Kyngston (1562) Fol.xxij Read Here; HNE

❧ 'O thou honeysuckle villain.', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI, (c.1591) 2.1.52; HNE

❧ 'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, / Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine.', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c.1595) 2.1.249; HNE

  'Sleep though, and I will wind thee in my arms. / So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle / Gently entwist; the female ivy so / Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. / O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!', ibid., 4.1.47; HP:FE HNE

❧ 'And bid her steal into the pleached bower / Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, / Forbid the sun to enter.', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, London: V.S. for Andrew Wise and William Aspley (1600) 3.1.7; HNE

  'So angle we for Beatrice; who even now / Is couched in the woodbine coverture.', ibid., 3.1.29; HNE

❧ '[...] / Woodbines of ſweet Honey full. / All Love's Emblems, and all cry, / Ladies, if not pluck'd we die.', ◆︎ John Fletcher, The Tragedy of Valentinian, (c.1610-1614, pub. 1647) 2.4 Read Here; HNE

❧ 'I sate me down to watch upon a bank / With Ivy canopied, and interwove / With flaunting Hony-suckle, and began / Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy / To meditate my rural minstrelsie,', ◆︎ John Milton, Comus (A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634), London: Humphrey Robinson (1637) ll.544-548 Read Here; HNE

❧ 'The Musk-rose, and the well attir'd Woodbine, / [...] / And every flower that sad embroidery wears:', 'Lycidas', ◆︎ John Milton, Justa Edouardo King Naufrago (1637) ll.146-148 Read Here; HNE

❧ 'Let us divide our labours, thou where choice / Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind / The Woodbine round this Arbour, or direct / The clasping Ivie where to climb,', ◆︎ John Milton, Paradise Lost. A Poem, Book VIII (Book IX in later editions), London: Peter Parker et al (1667) ll.215-218 Read Here; HNE

❧ 'The Woodbines mix'd in am'rous Play, / And breath'd their fragrant Lives away:', 'Pleasure. Vision II.', ◆︎ Nathaniel Cotton, Visions in Verse, for the Entertainment and Instruction of Younger Minds, London: R. Dodsley (1751) p.26 Read Here; CHW

❧ '[...] or the Woodbine wild / That loves to hang, on barren boughs remote / Her wreaths of flowery perfume.', ◆︎ William Mason, The English Garden: A Poem., Book III, London: J. Dodsley et al (1779) ll.144-146 Read Here; CHW

❧ 'As woodbine weds the plants within her reach, / Rough elm, or smooth-grain'd ash, or glossy beech, / [...] / Who will may pant for glory and excell, / Her smile his aim, all higher aims farewell!', 'Retirement', ◆︎ William Cowper, Poems: by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esp., London: J. Johnson (1782) ll.229-246 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'Copious of flow'rs the woodbine, pale and wan, / But well compensating their sickly looks / With never-cloying odours, early and late.', ◆︎ William Cowper, The Task: A Poem, in Six Books, Book VI, London: J. Johnson (1785) pp.229-283, ll.162-164 Read Here; HP:FE

❧ 'Inconstant WOODBINE, wherefore rove / With gadding stem about my bow'r? / Why, with my darling MYRTLE wove, / In bold defiance mock my pow'r? / Why quit thy native, lonely vale, / To flaunt thy buds, thy odours fling; / And idly greet the passing gale, / On ev'ry wanton zephyr's wing?', 'The Faded Bouquet', ◆︎ Mary Robinson (née Darby), Poems by Mrs. M. Robinson, London: J. Bell, British Library, Strand (1791) pp.88-89 Read Here; SJH

  SJH attributes this to 'Carew'. See also 'Other Verse' below.

❧ 'Ere she hath reached yon rustic Shed / Hung with late-flowering woodbine spread / [...] / And mysteries above her years.', ◆︎ William Wordsworth, The White Doe of Rylstone: or, The Fate of the Nortons. A Poem., London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown (1815) p.70 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'By him; nor in the high and clust'ring hedge / Does Flora plant the flow'r that gives the wind / Its odour, that sweet honeysuckle, which / Is fair as fragrant, but his well-pleas'd eye / Acknowledges its charms.', ◆︎ Nicholas Toms Carrington (as Noel Thomas Carrington), The Banks of Tamar, a Poem, With other Pieces, Plymouth-Dock: John Congdon, Noel Thomas Carrington; Booksellers in Plymouth and Dock; Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London (1820) p.69 Read Here; CHW

❧ 'How fortunate his lot who, bless'd with health / And competence, can bid the bustling world / At happy distance keep!—who rears his cot / Deep in the rural shade, and wreathes around / His lattice the rath woodbine!', ◆︎ Nicholas Toms Carrington, Dartmoor (1826) Read Here (1834 Collected Poems, London: Longman, pp.18-19); CHW

  'Fair is thy level landscape, England, fair / As ever Nature form'd! Away it sweeps, / [...] / The clustering hamlet, and the peaceful cot / Clasp'd by the woodbine, and the lordly dome,', ibid., Read Here (1834 Collected Poems, London: Longman, pp.24-25); CHW

❧ 'Fragrant Woodbine, all untwined, / Wanders here forlorn and free, / Emblem of the maiden's mind / Who has placed her trust in thee.', 'Love Shut Out of the Flower Garden', ◆︎ Rose Lawrence (née D'Aguilar), Cameos from the Antique; or, the Cabinet of Mythology: Selections Illustrative of the Mythology of Greece and Italy, for the Use of Young Persons, and intended as a Sequel to the Poetical Primer (1831); RT:LOF

  Lawrence notes this is from the Spanish of a 'Roderigo Cotta', however I do not have more information on this presently. I was also unable to lay my eyes on the first edition of this book.

❧ 'The honeysuckle give to Kate, / So kindly and caressing; / Whoever wins her for a mate, / Will win both wealth and blessing.', 'The May Morn Bouquet', ◆︎ Louisa Anne Meredith (née Twamley), The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated, London: Charles Tilt, Fleet Street (1836) p.27 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'The Wild Honeysuckle', ◆︎ Robert Tyas, Favourite Field Flowers; or, Wild Flowers of England Popularly Described; The Localities in Which They Grow, Their Times of Flowering, &c. and Illustrative Poetry, Original and Selected, London: Houlston & Stoneman (1848) p.87 Read Here; RT:FFF RT:LOF

❧ 'Ivy reaches up and climbs / About its lip, gilt here and there with sprays / Of woodbine, that enwreathed about it flaunts / Her saffron fruitage.', 'Idyll I. The Death of Daphnis', Theocritus (trans. ◆︎ Charles Stuart Calverley), Theocritus Translated Into English Verse, Third Edition, London: George Bell & Sons (1892) p.2 (Theoc. Id. 1. ) Read Here; HNE

Other Verse:

❧ 'Then o'er ſome lowly tuft, / Where roſe and woodbine bloom, permit its charms / To burſt upon the ſight;', ◆︎ William Mason, The English Garden: A Poem., Book I, London: J. Dodsley et al (1772) ll.207-209 Read Here;

  'There ſmiles in varied tufts the velvet roſe, / There flaunts the gadding woodbine, ſwells the ground / In gentle hillocks, and around its ſides / Thro' bloſſem'd ſhades the ſecret pathway ſteals.', ibid., ll.436-439 Read Here;

❧ 'Now his laurel ſcreen, / With roſe and woodbine negligently wove, / Bows to the ax;', ◆︎ William Mason, The English Garden: A Poem., Book III, London: J. Dodsley et al (1779) ll.263-265 Read Here;

❧ '"[...] there weave a woodbine / Bower, / And call that bower Nerina's.", ◆︎ William Mason, The English Garden: A Poem., Book IV, London: J. Dodsley et al (1781) ll.185-186 Read Here;

  'Only Nerina's wiſh, her woodbine bower, / Remain'd to crown the whole.', ibid., ll.214-215;

  '"I only begg'd a little woodbine bower, / Where I might ſit and weep, while all around / The lilies and the blue bells hung their heads / In ſeeming ſympathy."', ibid., ll.280-283;

  'Woodbine with jaſmine careleſsly entwin'd / Conceal'd the needful maſonry, and hung / In free feſtoons, and veſted all the cell.', ibid., ll.340-342;

  'Smiling thence / Aclander led him to the Woodbine bower / Which laſt our Song deſcrib'd, who ſeated there, / In ſilent tranſport view'd the lively ſcene.', ibid., ll.441-444;

  '"All is well, my friend; / 'Twas but a viſion; I may yet revive——— / But ſtill his arm ſupports me; aid him, friend, / And bear me ſwiftly to my woodbine bower; / For there indeed I wiſh to breathe my laſt."', ibid., ll.490-494;

❧ 'Her hedge row shrubs, a variegated store, / With woodbine and wild roses mantled o'er,', 'Retirement', ◆︎ William Cowper, Poems: by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esp., London: J. Johnson (1782) ll.419-420 Read Here;

❧ 'This od'rous WOODBINE fill'd the grove / With musky gales of balmy pow'r; / When with the MYRTLE interwove / It hung luxuriant round my bow'r.', 'The Faded Bouquet', ◆︎ Mary Robinson (née Darby), Poems by Mrs. M. Robinson, London: J. Bell, British Library, Strand (1791) pp.88-89 Read Here;