Native Garden Plant Factsheets

Black Twinberry

English Name(s): Black Twinberry, also Bearberry Honeysuckle, Bracted Honeysuckle, Californian Honeysuckle, Coast Twinberry, Fly Honeysuckle, Fourline Honeysuckle, Twinberry Honeysuckle, & Twin-berry
Scientific Name: Lonicera Involucrata
SENĆOŦEN Name: name unknown
lək̓ʷəŋən Name: name unknown

Fun Facts:
This plant is named for its twins of shiny black berries surrounded by reddish-purple bracts, which develop from a pair of tubular yellow flowers. The leaves grow in opposite pairs and are pointed and somewhat elliptical in shape, while the shrub is between 0.5 to 3 metres tall.

Honeysuckles are named for the fact that children enjoy sucking nectar out of the base of these flowers as a sweet treat.

Traditional Uses:
The berries are bitter and mostly considered poisonous, and were thus not often eaten -- the Kwakwaka'wakw believed that eating them made one unable to speak. They were still used as black pigment or as a method to prevent hair from turning grey. The leaves can be chewed and then applied to sores or itches. A bark infusion could be used as an eyewash, cough treatment, or a soak for sore feet and legs, among other medicinal preparations ranging from contraceptives to digestive tract issues.

Blooms: April to August
Season: September
Habitat: Moist and open habitats at low to subalpine elevation such as streamsides, forest edges, swamps, and thickets
Range: From Southeastern Alaska down to California, as well as most Western US States and non-Atlantic Canada

Further Sources:

https://nativeplantspnw.com/black-twinberry-lonicera-involucrata/
Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Jim Pojar & Andy MacKinnon

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