Tatarian honeysuckle

Tatarian honeysuckle is reported frequently throughout the Great Lakes Basin. It is reported most often in northern Michigan and Wisconsin and in the New York portion of the Basin. This species is common throughout the northern half of the U.S. and in southern Ontario.

Additional invasive species distribution data for specific Great Lakes jurisdictions is available via:

• Midwest Invasive Species Information Network (Michigan)
• iMapInvasives (New York and Pennsylvania)
• EDDMapS Ontario

Most Tatarian honeysuckle fruits fall close to the parent plant, leading to thicket-like growth. However, the seeds of Tatarian honeysuckle can be spread over long distances by birds and wildlife.

Tatarian honeysuckle’s wide adaptability to shade and to a variety of soils enables it to invade many different habitats. It can be found in savannahs, open woodlands, forest edges, floodplain forests, old pastures and fields, and transport and utility rights-of-way. It thrives in disturbed sites, and is frequently a problem in urban parks, bike trails, and forest preserves. However, it can also invade relatively high-quality woodlands (Hilty 2017). 

Once Tatarian honeysuckle is introduced to a habitat it can spread very quickly due to a number of competitive advantages. It produces leaves early in the spring and loses its leaves late in the fall, effectively extending its growing season. It also grows quickly to gain access to light, which in turn blocks light from other species. Research has demonstrated that forests with understories dominated by Tatarian honeysuckle have significantly less cover and diversity of native herbs, and significantly fewer sapling trees in the smallest size class than comparable uninvaded sites (Woods 1993). 

Native to Eastern Europe, Tatarian honeysuckle was imported and grown as an ornamental plant in North America starting in the mid-1700s. It became popular as a garden hedge due to its prolific flower production, and it is the only invasive bush honeysuckle for which several commercial cultivated varieties have been developed. Today Tatarian honeysuckle’s invasiveness is broadly recognized and many states have banned its sale, though a few nurseries still carry cultivars.

None.

Please see our Landscape Alternatives pages for more information about how the WIGL Collaborative selected alternatives.

~ = trait is somewhat present but not as pronounced as in check-marked examples

^a Fruits grow on female plants. At least one male plant is required for pollination and fruiting.
^b Size varies by cultivar

Green = native to part of the Great Lakes Basin
Yellow = native to the United States but not to the Basin
Blue = not native but not invasive

The WIGL Collaborative’s decision trees are designed to help site users, who are perhaps newly discovering that plants that are part of their home landscaping are invasive, prioritize which species should be removed first based on risk to the surrounding environment, economy, and occasionally, to human health. In a perfect world, everybody would remove all invasive plants from their landscaping right away, but in reality, removing mature woody plants involve a hefty investment of time and/or money. These diagrams can help people with multiple woody invasives in their landscaping prioritize to get the most benefit for their efforts.

To learn more about the methodology and information used to develop the decision trees and for helpful hints on how to answer the questions, please see the full report here (PDF).

The following is a brief overview of management techniques shown to be effective on Tatarian honeysuckle. For more detailed information on how to use these techniques, visit our Management and Control page. For local assistance managing woody invasive species, please get in touch with a cooperative invasive species management group or a university extension program.

Timing and spread concerns: Whenever possible, individual plants should be controlled before they are able to fruit in order to prevent spread. If control is undertaken after plants have fruited, it is best not to remove the plants from the site to avoid spreading seed. 

Physical control: Small plants are easily hand-pulled from moist soil; larger plants can be dug or pulled using equipment. Tatarian honeysuckle has relatively shallow roots compared to other invasive woody plants, even when the above-ground plant is large. Thus, it is sometimes possible to successfully remove mature honeysuckle using a weed wrench or a digging tool. A caveat is that pulling mature plants in a dense infestation causes a significant amount of soil disturbance, which often leads to a flush of germination of honeysuckle seeds the following year (Munger 2005). Tatarian honeysuckle regrows vigorously from cut stems and stumps after injury, so methods that top-kill plants, such as prescribed fire, grazing, and stem cutting, are unlikely to provide effective long-term control (Munger 2005).

Chemical control and combined approaches: Foliar spray is the most feasible method for a large, dense infestation, and is effective anytime plants are actively growing and fully leafed out. Because Tatarian honeysuckle retains leaves later than almost all native deciduous plants, late fall is the ideal time to conduct foliar application to reduce off-target impacts. Foliar application in spring following flowering is also effective, but risks off-target damage to spring wildflowers where those are present. Foliar application can be done as a stand-alone practice or can be used as a follow up to top-killing physical control methods by applying herbicide to regrowth. Cut stump and basal bark herbicide treatments are effective and can be applied during most of the year, avoiding early spring. In all cases, herbicide should be selected carefully based on site conditions, and label directions read and followed carefully.

With any treatment it will be necessary to monitor for and treat regrowth in subsequent years. Managers should expect treatment of dense honeysuckle infestations to be a long-term commitment.

Resources on management of Tatarian honeysuckle:

• Fire Effects Information System
• Midwest Invasive Plant Network Control Database
• University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension
• Ohio State University
• Illinois Natural History Survey

• Dirr, MA. 1998. Lonicera tatarica. In: Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Fifth Edition. Champlain, IL: Stipes Publishing. 585-586.
• Hilty, J. 2017. Tatarian honeysuckle In: Illinois Wildflowers. 6/18/2019. 
• Munger, GT. 2005. Lonicera sp. In: Fire Effects Information System (Online). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Available: https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/lonspp/all.html, 6/19/2019.
• Woods, KD. 1993. Effects of invasion by Lonicera tatarica on herbs and tree seedlings in four New England Forests. The American Midland Naturalist. 130(1): 62-74.