NHD52/18

Honeysuckle

Lonicera discolor Lindl.; Caprifoliaceae family

Original inscriptions: 金銀花 (front lower right in ink, attached to painting with pin);

Further inscriptions: H. Sh. (front lower left in ink); Lonicera discolour (front lower right in pencil)

Flowering twig of an orange-white flower honeysuckle plant. The main branch divides in four smaller twigs, two of which have flowers on the upper end. Leaves are arranged opposite on each twig, they are of elliptic shape, dark green in colour with golden pinnate veins. On the left twig, flowers are mostly orange coloured, with a few white ones on the top. They sprout in an opposite dense arrangement along the stem, either individually or as part of an umbel structure with several flower (three to five) stemming from a single pedicel. Flower petals are long and thin, curling outward at the edges, with long erect, white stamens protruding from the middle of the flowers. On the right twig, flowers are similarly arranged but they are all white in colour, and buds are shown as elongated greenish structures sitting on an umbel pedicel. Lower left: dissected view of the pedicel, ovary, with long style with green round stigma, next to a laterally viewed flower showing petals and five stamens protruding beyond the petals.

Any further details: Page cut on top. Pencil underdrawings visible. White paint partly oxidised. The same plant is depicted in a different format in NHD54/40.