Lonicera Involucrata, Black Twinberry

Flowers of lonicera involucrata are yellow, hairy and tubular, produced as a pair; about half an inch long, opening to five small lobes, approximately equal in size. The style is exserted, the stamens are not. Flowers are drooping. At the base of the flowers are two pairs of red-purple, leaf-like bracts; the inner pair are usually deeply lobed, while the outer pair are unlobed, and somewhat smaller. The bracts are covered by glandular hairs, and they persist after the flowers wither, subtending two shiny, dark purple berries. At this stage the bracts are reflexed, bent back below the plane. Flowers are borne on stalks up to one inch long, and they form at the leaf nodes.

Stems and leaves have a sparse covering of stalked, glandular hairs. Leaves are relatively large, ovate in shape, with a central vein and prominent, parallel side veins.