Scientific name: Leycesteria formosa Wall.
Common name: Himalayan Honeysuckle
Description
Habit: A deciduous shrub, often semi-herbaceous, suckering, to 2 m high.
Stems: Erect, cane-like and hollow, becoming woody in their second year.
Leaves: Opposite, stalked, 5-18 cm long, simple, oval to lanceolate, entire or shallowly toothed and with a pointed tip.
Flowers: Purple to pink to white, in crowded terminal spikes with conspicuous purple or purple-green bracts; corolla actinomorphic, funnel-shaped, usually 5-lobed, purple to pink to white, 10-20 mm, drooping, in crowded heads with conspicuous bracts 12-35 mm long; style protruding; stamens 5, ovary inferior.
Fruits: A globular, purple to brown coloured, many seeded berry, about 1 cm in diameter.
Habitat: Hedges, woods, scrub, rarely on walls.
Distribution: Rather rare but increasing.
Native status: Not native
Of conservation interest: No