蓝果忍冬 lan guo ren dong

Lonicera caerulea var. altaica Pallas; L. caerulea var. edulis Turczaninow ex Herder; L. caerulea var. tangutica Maximowicz; Xylosteon caeruleum (Linnaeus) Dumont de Courset.

Shrubs, deciduous, to 2.5 m tall. Branches with solid pith. Bark flaking. Buds divaricate, sometimes with accessory ones. Winter buds with several pairs of scales, outer pair long acuminate and obscuring inner ones. Interpetiolar stipules sometimes reniform and fused to 6 mm; leaf blade ovate to oblong or obovate, 1-6 × 1-3 cm, both surfaces with sparse short hairs, more densely so and spreading hairy on midvein, sometimes subglabrous, base rounded, apex acute to obtuse. Inflorescences axillary, paired flowers; peduncle 2-10 mm; bracts linear, 2-3 × as long as ovaries; bracteoles glabrous, fused into a cupule tightly enclosing free ovaries. Corolla tubular-funnelform, 10-15 mm, outside puberulent, shallowly gibbous at base; lobes regular, 2-3 mm. Stamens exserted from corolla. Ovaries 2-locular; style exserted and glabrous. Cupule tightly fused around 2 berries, blue-black, pruinose, forming an elliptic to oblong-elliptic compound fruit, ca. 1.5 cm. Seeds brown, globose to ellipsoid, ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Sep.

Deciduous forests, scrub; 2600-3500 m. S Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, ?Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shanxi, N Sichuan, Xinjiang, NW Yunnan [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; Europe, North America].

This is a very widely distributed and variable species. The berries are edible.