A deciduous shrub up to 12 ft high, with hollow branchlets; young shoots, usually rather shaggy at first, but variable in this respect and sometimes nearly glabrous; winter-buds pointed with ciliate scales. Leaves oval to ovate-lanceolate, pointed, broadly tapering or rounded at the base, 2 to 41⁄2 in. long, about half as wide, downy on the midrib above, also beneath especially on the veins; stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long. Flowers twin, each pair borne on a slender hairy stalk 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long, springing from the leaf-axils; they are pale yellow becoming deeper in shade with age, 3⁄4 in. long, slightly downy outside; stamens downy at the lower part; ovaries glandular. Fruits coral-red.
Native of Siberia, N. China, and Japan. It has long been in cultivation and was in the Kew collection in 1880. As a flowering bushy honeysuckle it is one of the most ornamental and very hardy.
var. latifolia Korshinsky L. chrysantha f. turkestanica Hort. ex Rehd. – Leaves broader and stouter, less downy beneath. It resembles L. ruprechtiana in many respects, but that species has a glabrous ovary.
var. longipes Maxim. – This variety differs from the type only in having the leaves rather more sparsely hairy beneath and slightly longer peduncles.
f. regeliana (Kirchn.) Rehd. L. regeliana Kirchn. – Flowers smaller, deeper yellow.