Honeysuckle

The Honeysuckle has to be one of the most iconic and characteristic English native plants. It has the kind of showy and exotic flowers that one associates more with tropical forests than the English countryside. It’s widely planted in gardens as it is so attractive and garden varieties are little differentiated from the native plants – which is surely a testament to its beauty.

It’s a climbing plant that is often found intertwined with supporting plants like Hawthorn.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the flowers whilst fishing; but I see it a lot on walks to the water as it is a common plant along hedgerows, lanes, wood edges. It comes in a lot of colour varieties, but the structure of the flowers is so unique that there is never any doubt as to it’s identity. It has no close relatives; so if it looks like a honeysuckle then that is what it is.