RUBINA AKHTER

Erect shrub up to 2.5 m tall, glabrous to more or less hairy. Leaves up to 7 x 3 cm, elliptical to obovate or ovate-oblong, acute to subacute, cuneate or rounded at the base. Flowers subregular, in pairs on 7-10 mm long axillary peduncles. Bracts linear, longer than bracteoles; bracteoles Connate, cup-like, enclosing the ovaries. Calyx limb undulate, pilose. Corolla yellow, up to 16 mm long, infundibuliform, base gibbous, lobes subequal. Berries connate, succulent, dark blue.

Fl. Per.: May-June.

Type: Pamir, lacus Jashil-Kul ad fontes flue. gunt, Bukiniez.

The present treatment of Lonicera stenantha is provisional because of the limited amount of plant specimens studied. Our plants have previously been lumped under Lonicera coerulea L. Most authors use Lonicera coerulea for the plant restricted to Europe. The species is variable in degree of hairiness of leaves, corolla and fruit shape. Found in the Himalaya up to 3500 m.