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Leycesteria formosa
Also called Himalaya Honeysuckle, Pheasant Berry
Himalayan honeysuckle is a deciduous, half-woody shrub with hollow, upright stems that often die back after a few years and regrow from the roots. It grows best in moist, partly shaded, sheltered spots and is valued for its colourful bracts and berries.
Leycesteria formosa, the pheasant berry, is a deciduous shrub in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Himalayas and southwestern China. It is considered a noxious invasive species in Australia, New Zealand, the neighbouring islands of Micronesia, and some other places.
In the Himalayas, the shrub is frequently used in the traditional medicine of the various countries and peoples encompassed within the region.
In the wild, in the eastern Himalayas and western China, the plant grows in wet, rocky woods and on cliffs, its predeliction for the latter habitat explaining its success in colonising walls – effectively artificial cliffs. The plant was included in a list of species observed to be resistant to gross atmospheric pollution (smoke and other particulates) compiled in the late 19th century. It is equally resistant to modern atmospheric pollution and will tolerate windy sites and the salty air of coastal localities. Furthermore, deer will not browse upon it. It is often found naturalised in the wild in southern England. In Ireland it is found in roadsides, planted wooded areas, and riverbanks.
While many sources assert that L. formosa is not toxic, there have been associated deaths of cattle reported in New Zealand and Australia, where the plant is a rampant weed, and thus the plant is best considered suspect until more conclusive evidence comes to light. Leaves and unripe berries are likely to have been the plant parts browsed. Though this plant is often confused with Tutu a plant with poisonous seeds in Aotearoa, this plant shares an almost identical habitat, leaf shape, hollow stems, and a deep connection with traditional health practices called rongoā.
L. formosa includes within its wide range of distribution the areas of all the other known species of the genus. From the North-West Frontier Province and the Punjab it ranges the whole length of the Himalaya eastwards to south-eastern Yunnan, where it was collected by Henry near Mengtze, and north-eastwards to Szechuan and eastern Tibet, where Rehder's var. stenosepala appears to replace very largely the typical form.
L. formosa is a frequently used medicinal plant in Southwest China, where it bears the common name Yi Yao. The Yi people (known also as Nuoso and Lolo) of Sichuan province use the tender shoots of the plant in their system of traditional medicine to treat measles. The Yi (speakers of various Loloish languages of Burmese affiliation) are notable for their rich cultural heritage, having retained their ancient shamanic faith of Bimoism, which incorporates a traditional body of ethnomedicinal knowledge. Furthermore the Yi are fortunate in not having to rely solely upon oral tradition, possessing as they do written records in their own Yi script, dating back at least to the end of the fifteenth century and – according to tradition – even farther back to the time of the Tang dynasty.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leycesteria formosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
