Coral honeysuckle

This one speaks English, not Japanese. Yes, the common white-flowered and sweet-scented honeysuckle that grows all over the United States and Canada is originally from Japan, but Lonicera sempervirens, called coral honeysuckle, grows from Texas to Quebec, as you can confirm at the USDA website. (I assume it also speaks French in Quebec.)

Coral honeysuckle is clearly red, and a comparison to the blossoms of the redbud tree in the background proves—as if any proof were needed—that the flowers of the redbud tree are a pinkish-violet. This photograph comes from the same March 2 session along Great Northern Blvd. in north-central Austin that has already brought you a picture in which a blossoming redbud tree played the starring role. This time, in order to have the non-red redbud appear as a backdrop to the red honeysuckle, I had to thread my way through some greenbriers and some stalks of poison ivy that were just beginning to leaf out, then get down low and aim upward at perhaps 60°. Intrepid me.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman