# Yellow Honeysuckle (Lonicera flava)

> A native twining vine with fragrant yellow flowers that darken to orange in spring, one of the most beautiful American honeysuckles.

Also called pale yellow honeysuckle, Lonicera flavida. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/yellow-honeysuckle/

![Yellow honeysuckle (Lonicera flava) whorl of yellow flowers turning orange on a joined leaf disk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/yellow-honeysuckle-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALonicera_flava_Arkansas.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 10 to 20 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 8
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground, stream banks, old fields and edges
- Native range: 12 states, north to [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA) and west to [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC) and [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: April to May
- Fruit: Berries, August to September
- First crop: 3 to 5 years
- Mature spread: 6 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Hedge or screen
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Yellow honeysuckle is a native twining vine of the Ozarks and the southern uplands, counted among the most beautiful of American honeysuckles. Its flowers open bright yellow and turn orange before they drop, and they are mildly fragrant. Gardens have grown it since 1810, though plants sold under its name were often other honeysuckles. Its wild stands are few and scattered. It does not run wild the way the invasive Japanese honeysuckle does. Give it a trellis or a fence in sun, where its spring flowers draw hummingbirds.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Yellow honeysuckle grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It is a twining vine of 10 to 20 feet on a support, and a plant fills 3 to 6 feet. Without a support it trails along the ground or grows into a loose shrub.

Whorls of tubular flowers about an inch long open in April and May above a pair of leaves joined into a disk, and hummingbirds and butterflies visit them. Round orange-red berries a quarter inch across ripen in August and September, and birds and small mammals eat them. Its leaves feed the caterpillars of the bumblebee clearwing moth.

It grows wild in scattered stands from Illinois and Kentucky south to Georgia and South Carolina and west to Kansas and Oklahoma, most often in the Ozarks. Its home is rocky woods and their openings, bluff ledges and rocky stream banks. Illinois lists it as endangered and Tennessee as threatened, and it is gone from Ohio.

## How to grow Yellow Honeysuckle

Yellow honeysuckle grows in full sun or part shade and flowers best in full sun. It takes most soils, rocky ones too, but it does best in a humus-rich soil that drains well. Once rooted it takes some drought. It needs a trellis or a fence, and a little help to start twining up it, or it trails along the ground and turns shrubby. Set the support 3 feet from a wall, and set plants 3 feet apart for a screen. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Tie the first shoots to the support. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep, under a little straw. For a spring sowing, chill it damp in the refrigerator for two to three months first.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short, and mulch the roots for winter. It flowers on last year's wood, so prune right after it blooms.

A lone yellow honeysuckle does not set berries with its own pollen, so plant two or more from different parents for fruit. Hummingbirds and other visitors with long tongues reach its nectar. No serious pest or disease troubles it. Birds eat the berries, but as with other honeysuckle vines, treat them as toxic to people.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Lonicera flava](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lonicera-flava/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Lonicera flava](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=278949)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: Yellow Honeysuckle](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/yellow-honeysuckle)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Lonicera flava](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LOFL)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society): Lonicera flava](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lonicera/lonicera-flava/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Lonicera chapter (Dubois and Blazich)](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Lonicera.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Lonicera flava](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/LOFL)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Lonicera flava, Yellow Honeysuckle](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.130472/Lonicera_flava)
- [Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board: Checklist of Endangered and Threatened Animals and Plants of Illinois, 2025](https://dnr.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dnr/espb/documents/et-list-review-and-revision/2025-illinois-list-revision/2025-e-t-checklist.pdf)
- [Tennessee Natural Heritage Program: Rare Plant List](https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/natural-areas/documents/na_tn-rare-plant-list.pdf)
- [Ohio Department of Natural Resources: Rare Native Ohio Plants, 2024-25 Status List](https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/odnr/natural-areas/2024-25_Ohio_Rare_Native_Plants_Status_List_FINAL_draft.pdf)
- [North Carolina Natural Heritage Program: 2024 Rare Plant List, revised 11/03/2025](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/833/open)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Lonicera japonica, Japanese honeysuckle, Munger 2002](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/lonjap)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other honeysuckles (Lonicera) we grow: [American Fly Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-fly-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Grape Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/grape-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Hairy Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hairy-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Limber Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/limber-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Mountain Fly Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-fly-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Trumpet Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/trumpet-honeysuckle/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md), [Western Soapberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/western-soapberry/index.html.md) and [Winged Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/winged-elm/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Yellow Honeysuckle, add ?species=yellow-honeysuckle with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=yellow-honeysuckle&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Yellow Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=yellow-honeysuckle): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Yellow Honeysuckle as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=yellow-honeysuckle (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Yellow Honeysuckle is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=yellow-honeysuckle (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Yellow Honeysuckle needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=yellow-honeysuckle:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Yellow Honeysuckle where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=yellow-honeysuckle&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Yellow Honeysuckle goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=yellow-honeysuckle&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Yellow Honeysuckle flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=yellow-honeysuckle