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The Daily Bucket - in search of the wild pink honeysuckle [1]

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Date: 2025-06-26

May-June 2025

Pacific Northwest

We have two kinds of wild honeysuckle on the island, the Orange and the Pink. Orange Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa) is extremely abundant and prolific, vining all over shrubs and way up into trees in sunny spots, providing a wealth of pollen and nectar for birds and insects over a long stretch of spring into summer. In contrast, Pink Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula) is shy and low growing, preferring shadier spots, doesn’t produce many flowers, and those bloom just over a shorter window starting in June. One of the few places I can easily get to where it grows is on the rocky headland of the ferry dock. It so happened that I was going off in late May, and used my waiting time to check around for some blooms.

May 28:

The bluff is a mix of shady and exposed habitat, but altogether dry, with thin soil on bedrock.

Garry oaks are our only native oak, and grow only in dry settings unshaded by conifers.

Baldhip roses were still in bloom. Baldhips prefer shadier spots, unlike the more abundant Nootka roses

Bumblebee on Broadleaf Stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium)

Puget Sound Gumweed was just starting to flower. It will bloom all summer long into fall. (Grindelia integrifolia)

I’m looking straight down the cliff past the Gumweed to rocks with seaweed below.

Pacific Madronas were finishing their bloom and setting fruit

There were lots of Pink Honeysuckle vines on the headland but I only found one that had any flowers, tucked against this rock.

With pink buds! ! Not open yet though.

June 17:

Heading back over to the mainland for an appointment, I scouted out the headland again while I waited for the ferry. Maybe the honeysuckle would be blooming now?

Path down through firs and madronas toward the cliff

Again, plenty of Honeysuckle vines (growing here over a Madrona trunk) but no flowers. Odd. I’ve seen quite a few on the headland before.

Garter snake in the thin duff

Gumweed and Seaside Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum)

The Madrona fruit was green and developing. Berries won’t turn red until later in summer. Old foliage is ready to drop.

This is the 72-hour parking lot (ferry loading lanes are on the right, out of frame). The cliff drops straight down on the left….

….into a mix of shrubs and trees. But just over the edge of the log railing are some Honeysuckle vines.

In bloom! With fruits developing below.

Many fewer blooms this year for some reason, perhaps due to the unusually dry spring we’ve had. It was sure nice to see a few flowers blooming at last.

🌸

Overcast, calm and dry in the PNW islands today. Cool temps, in the 60s. Precipitation is still well below normal for this time of year.

What’s up in nature in your neighborhood?

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