While the three subspecies of Linnaea borealis are all considered widespread, abundant, and secure in their main, northern ranges, all three subspecies are of conservation concern near the subspecies' range edges or at more southerly, disjunct sites.
In Great Britain, Linnaea borealis ssp. borealis is listed as "nationally scarce", growing mainly in open pine woodlands in Scotland and northernmost England. Foresters consider this plant to be an indicator species of ancient woodlands, often found in association with creeping lady's tresses. It is found in about 50 sites around the country, with most situated in the woods around the Cairngorms; the southernmost locations are four sites in Northumberland and one in County Durham. The sparseness of the sites is responsible for the continued decline of the plant in the country. In Scotland, 37% of L. borealis patches studied consisted of a single genotype, reproducing clonally vegetatively but not producing viable seed. This is a conservation concern because, without viable seed, the species may not be able to re-populate restored habitat, and may not be able to adapt to climate change by establishing new populations.
In the United States, Linnaea borealis ssp. americana is of conservation concern in several states along or near the southern edge of the species' range, including Arizona, Iowa, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and was known historically but now considered extirpated or possibly so in Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
In Canada, Linnaea borealis ssp. longiflora is considered of conservation significance in the Yukon Territory, along the eastern edge of its range, where ssp. americana is widespread and abundant.
Since many of the outlying southern sites for Linnaea borealis are in habitats that are at high elevations or otherwise in cooler microclimates than the surrounding general landscapes, ongoing and prospective climate change has become a significant concern for the conservation of this species in such places, such as Ice Mountain in West Virginia, a low-elevation algific talus slope with persisting buried ice.


Linnaeus took Linnaea borealis as his own personal symbol when he was raised to the Swedish nobility in 1757. In his Critica Botanica (1737), Linnaeus had used Gronovius's name Linnaea as an example to advocate the use of commemorative personal names as botanical names:
it is commonly believed that the name of a plant which is derived from that of a botanist shows no connection between the two...[but]...Linnaea was named by the celebrated Gronovius and is a plant of Lapland, lowly, insignificant, disregarded, flowering but for a brief space — after Linnaeus who resembles it.
The flower of Linnaea borealis is the provincial flower of Småland, the home province of Linnaeus.


Linum lewisii (Linum perenne var. lewisii) (Lewis flax, blue flax or prairie flax) is a perennial plant in the family Linaceae, native to western North America from Alaska south to Baja California, and from the Pacific Coast east to the Mississippi River. It grows on ridges and dry slopes, from sea level in the north up to 11,000 feet (3,400 metres) in the Sierra Nevada.
It is a slender herbaceous plant growing to 80 centimetres (31+1⁄2 inches) tall, with spirally arranged narrow lanceolate leaves 1–2 cm (1⁄2–3⁄4 in) long. The flowers are pale blue or lavender to white, often veined in darker blue, with five petals 1–1.5 cm long.
The plant was named for North American explorer Meriwether Lewis.


Linum lewisii is extremely durable, even aggressive, in favorable conditions, successfully seeding even into established lawns.


According to Melvin R. Gilmore, the seeds were gathered by Native Americans and cooked for their flavor and nutritious quality.
Some Native Americans used the fibers to make cordage.


Linum pratense, commonly called meadow flax, is a species of flowering plant in the flax family (Linaceae). It is native to the United States, where it is found in the south-central and southwestern regions of the country. Its natural habitat is in dry, open prairies over calcareous or sandy soil. It can be found in both intact and disturbed communities.
Linum pratense is a slender, erect annual. It blooms in spring through early summer, producing pale blue flowers. This species bears a strong resemblance to Linum lewisii, and they are known to intergrade in areas where their ranges overlap. Linum pratense can be distinguished by its annual habit, shorter styles, and obtuse capsule tips. In contrast, Linum lewisii is a perennial with longer styles and acute capsule tips.


One of the orchid's common names, lily-leaved twayblade, comes from the plant having two connected basal leaves. The leaves are light green, smooth, oval shaped,  and have a partial mid-rib. Its delicate flowers are mauve or purple, arranged on a 4–10-inch (100–250 mm) tall stem in a loose cluster, and total up to 31 flowers. The petals and sepals are long, thin, and often droop. Its flowers can be green, but it is a rare occurrence. Each flower has a labellum that is wide, flat, and nearly translucent. The labellum is pale purple and has darker veins. The fruit is smaller than the pedicels. Its seeds can only germinate and grow with a specific mycorrhizal fungus that can be found across its range. It has been debated over decades whether liliifolia should have a single or two consecutive i's, although the correct spelling has now been shown to be liliifolia by botanist Bernard Boivin.


It is native to eastern Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and the eastern United States. In the eastern United States, it is found in the Appalachians, Ozarks, the Great Lakes region, and the Ohio and Upper Mississippi Valleys, but not the southern coastal plains. The orchid's habitat is in forests, shrublands, thickets, woodlands, and mountains. The highest altitude that the plant can be found in mountains is 4,200 feet (1,300 m). While the plant is considered globally secure, it is rare or endangered in many northeastern states due to declining populations. It can be commonly found throughout much of its range.


The plant is pollinated by flies, potentially including the species Pegoplata juvenilis. It has been speculated that unspecialized insects have pollinated the orchid. The North American Orchid Center has stated that it is possible for insects with either long legs or mouthparts to pollinate its flowers. Threats to the orchid include flooding caused by beavers, swamp habitat being drained, and insecticides that kill the flies which pollinate the plant.


Liriodendron tulipifera—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron (the other member is Liriodendron chinense), and the tallest eastern hardwood. It is native to eastern North America from Southern Ontario and possibly southern Quebec to Illinois eastward to southwestern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and south to central Florida and Louisiana. It can grow to more than 50 m (160 ft) in virgin cove forests of the Appalachian Mountains, often with no limbs until it reaches 25–30 m (80–100 ft) in height, making it a very valuable timber tree. The tallest individual at the present time (2021) is one called the Fork Ridge Tulip Tree at a secret location in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Repeated measurements by laser and tape-drop have shown it to be 191' 10" (58.49 meters) in height. It is the tallest tree in eastern North America.
It is fast-growing, without the common problems of weak wood strength and short lifespan often seen in fast-growing species. April marks the start of the flowering period in the Southern United States (except as noted below); trees at the northern limit of cultivation begin to flower in June. The flowers are pale green or yellow (rarely white), with an orange band on the tepals; they yield large quantities of nectar. The tulip tree is the state tree of Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.


The tulip tree is one of the largest of the native trees of the eastern United States, known in an extraordinary case to reach the height of 58.5 m (192 ft) with the next-tallest known specimens in the 52–54 m (170–177 ft) range.  The trunk on large examples is typically 1.2–1.8 m (4–6 ft) in diameter, though it can grow much broader.  Its ordinary height is 24–46 m (80–150 ft) and it tends to have a pyramidal crown. It prefers deep, rich, and rather moist soil; it is common throughout the Southern United States. Growth is fairly rapid.
The bark is brown, furrowed, aromatic and bitter. The branchlets are smooth, and lustrous, initially reddish, maturing to dark gray, and finally brown. The wood is light yellow to brown, and the sapwood creamy white; light, soft, brittle, close, straight-grained. Specific gravity: 0.4230; density: 422 g/dm³ (26.36 lb/cu ft).
Winter buds are dark red, covered with a bloom, obtuse; scales becoming conspicuous stipules for the unfolding leaf, and persistent until the leaf is fully grown. Flower-bud enclosed in a two-valved, caducous bract.
The alternate leaves are simple, pinnately veined, measuring 125–150 mm (5–6 in) long and wide. They have four lobes, and are heart-shaped or truncate or slightly wedge-shaped at base, entire, and the apex cut across at a shallow angle, making the upper part of the leaf look square; midrib and primary veins prominent. They come out of the bud recurved by the bending down of the petiole near the middle bringing the apex of the folded leaf to the base of the bud, light green, when full grown are bright green, smooth and shining above, paler green beneath, with downy veins. In autumn they turn a clear, bright yellow. Petiole long, slender, angled.
Flowers: May. Perfect, solitary, terminal, greenish yellow, borne on stout peduncles, 40–50 mm (1+1⁄2–2 in) long, cup-shaped, erect, conspicuous. The bud is enclosed in a sheath of two triangular bracts which fall as the blossom opens.
Calyx: Sepals three, imbricate in bud, reflexed or spreading, somewhat veined, early deciduous.
Corolla: Cup-shaped, petals six, 50 mm (2 in) long, in two rows, imbricate, hypogynous, greenish yellow, marked toward the base with yellow. Somewhat fleshy in texture.
Stamens: Indefinite, imbricate in many ranks on the base of the receptacle; filaments thread-like, short; anthers extrorse, long, two-celled, adnate; cells opening longitudinally.
Pistils: Indefinite, imbricate on the long slender receptacle. Ovary one-celled; style acuminate, flattened; stigma short, one-sided, recurved; ovules two.
Fruit: Narrow light brown cone, formed from many samaras which are dispersed by wind, leaving the axis persistent all winter. September, October.
Harriet Louise Keeler provided a description of the tulip tree in Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them.


Originally described by Carl Linnaeus, Liriodendron tulipifera is one of two species (see also L. chinense) in the genus Liriodendron in the magnolia family. The name Liriodendron is Greek for "lily tree". It is also called the tuliptree Magnolia, or sometimes, by the lumber industry, as the tulip-poplar or yellow-poplar. However, it is not closely related to true lilies, tulips or poplars.
The tulip tree has impressed itself upon popular attention in many ways, and consequently has many common names. The tree's traditional name in the Miami-Illinois language is oonseentia. Native Americans so habitually made their dugout canoes of its trunk that the early settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains called it Canoewood. The color of its wood gives it the name Whitewood. In areas near the Mississippi River it is called a poplar largely because of the fluttering habits of its leaves, in which it resembles trees of that genus. It is sometimes called "fiddle tree," because its peculiar leaves, with their arched bases and in-cut sides, suggest the violin shape.
The external resemblance of its flowers to tulips named it the Tulip-tree. In their internal structure, however, they are quite different. Instead of the triple arrangements of stamens and pistil parts, they have indefinite numbers arranged in spirals.


In the Cretaceous age the genus was represented by several species, and was widely distributed over North America and Europe. Its remains are also found in Tertiary rocks.
Today the tulip tree is one of the largest and most valuable hardwoods of eastern North America.  It is native from Connecticut and southern New York, westward to southern Ontario and northern Ohio, and south to Louisiana and northern Florida. It is found sparingly in New England; it is abundant on the southern shore of Lake Erie and westward to Illinois. It extends south to north Florida, and is rare west of the Mississippi River, but is found occasionally for ornamentals. Its finest development is in the Southern Appalachian mountains, where trees may exceed 50 m (170 ft) in height. It was introduced into Great Britain before 1688 in Bishop Compton's garden at Fulham Palace and is now a popular ornamental in streets, parks, and large gardens. The Appalachian Mountains and adjacent Piedmont running south from Pennsylvania to Georgia contained 75 percent of all yellow-poplar growing stock in 1974.


Parts of east-central Florida near Orlando have an ecotype with similar-looking leaves to the coastal plain variant of the Carolinas; it flowers much earlier (usually in March, although flowering can begin in late January), with a smaller yellower bloom than other types. This east central Florida ecotype/Peninsular allozyme group seems to have the best ability to tolerate very wet conditions, where it may grow short pencil-like root structures (pneumatophores) similar to those produced by other swamp trees in warm climates. Superior resistance to drought, pests and wind is also noted. Some individuals retain their leaves all year unless a hard frost strikes. Places where it may be seen include Dr. Howard A. Kelly Park, Lake Eola Park, Spring Hammock Preserve, Big Tree Park and the University of Central Florida Arboretum.


Liriodendron tulipifera is generally considered to be a shade-intolerant species that is most commonly associated with the first century of forest succession. In Appalachian forests, it is a dominant species during the 50–150 years of succession, but is absent or rare in stands of trees 500 years or older. One particular group of trees survived in the grounds of Orlagh College, Dublin for 200 years, before having to be cut down in 1990. On mesic, fertile soils, it often forms pure or nearly pure stands. It can and does persist in older forests when there is sufficient disturbance to generate large enough gaps for regeneration. Individual trees have been known to live for up to around 500 years.
All young tulip trees and most mature specimens are intolerant of prolonged inundation; however, a coastal plain swamp ecotype in the southeastern United States is relatively flood-tolerant. This ecotype is recognized by its blunt-lobed leaves, which may have a red tint.
Liriodendron tulipifera produces a large amount of seed, which is dispersed by wind. The seeds typically travel a distance equal to 4–5 times the height of the tree, and remain viable for 4–7 years. The seeds are not one of the most important food sources for wildlife, but they are eaten by a number of birds and mammals.
Vines, especially wild grapevines, are known to be extremely damaging to young trees of this species. Vines are damaging both due to blocking out sunlight, and increasing weight on limbs which can lead to bending of the trunk and/or breaking of limbs.


In terms of its role in the ecological community, L. tulipifera does not host a great diversity of insects, with only 28 species of moths associated with the tree. Among specialists, L. tulipifera is the sole host plant for the caterpillars of C. angulifera, a giant silkmoth found in the eastern United States. Several generalist species use L. tulipifera. It is a well-known host for the large, green eggs of the Papilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, which are known to lay their eggs exclusively among plants in the magnolia and rose families of plants, primarily in mid-late June through early August, in some states.


Liriodendron tulipifera is cultivated, and grows readily from seeds.  These should be sown in fine soft soil in a cool and shady area. If sown in autumn they come up the succeeding spring, but if sown in spring they often remain a year in the ground. John Loudon says that seeds from the highest branches of old trees are most likely to germinate. It is readily propagated from cuttings and easily transplanted.


Tulip trees make magnificently shaped specimen trees, and are very large, growing to about 35 m (110 ft) in good soil. They grow best in deep well-drained loam which has thick dark topsoil. They show stronger response to fertilizer compounds (those with low salt index are preferred) than most other trees, but soil structure and organic matter content are more important. In the wild it is occasionally seen around serpentine outcrops. The southeastern coastal plain and east central Florida ecotypes occur in wet but not stagnant soils which are high in organic matter. All tulip trees are unreliable in clay flats which are subject to ponding and flooding.
Like other members of the Magnoliaceae family, they have fleshy roots that are easily broken if handled roughly. Transplanting should be done in early spring, before leaf-out; this timing is especially important in the more northern areas. Fall planting is often successful in Florida. The east central Florida ecotype may be more easily moved than other strains because its roots grow over nine or ten months every year—several months longer than other ecotypes. Most tulip trees have low tolerance of drought, although Florida natives (especially the east central ecotype) fare better than southeastern coastal plain or northern inland specimens.
It is recommended as a shade tree. The tree's tall and rapid growth is a function of its shade intolerance. Grown in the full sun, the species tends to grow shorter, slower, and rounder, making it adaptable to landscape planting. In forest settings, most investment is made in the trunk (i.e., the branches are weak and easily break off, a sign of axial dominance) and lower branches are lost early as new, higher branches closer to the sun continue the growth spurt upward. A tree just 15 years old may already reach 12 m (40 ft) in height with no branches within reach of humans standing on the ground.


'Ardis' – dwarf, with smaller leaves than wild form. Leaves shallow-lobed, some without lower lobes.
'Arnold' – narrow, columnar crown; may flower at early age.
'Aureomarginatum' – variegated form with pale-edged leaves; sold as 'Flashlight' or 'Majestic Beauty'.
'Fastigatum' – similar form to 'Arnold' but flowers at later age.
'Florida Strain' – blunt-lobed leaves, fast grower, flowers at early age.
'Integrifolium' – leaves without lower lobes.
'JFS-Oz' – compact oval form with straight leader, leaves dark and glossy; sold as 'Emerald City.'
'Leucanthum' – flowers white or nearly white.
'Little Volunteer' – almost as diminutive as 'Ardis' but with stronger form. Leaves more deeply lobed than 'Ardis.'
'Mediopictum' – variegated form with yellow spot near center of leaf.
'Roothaan' – blunt-lobed leaves.
'Snow Bird' - variegated, with white-edged leaves.
In the UK the species and its variegated cultivar 'Aureomarginatum' have both gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Liriodendron tulipifera has been introduced to many temperate parts of the world, at least as far north as Sykkylven, Norway and Arboretum Mustila, Finland. A few nurseries in Finland offer this species even though it is not fully hardy there and tends to be held to shrub form.
It is occasionally cultivated in tropical highlands, as in Costa Rica and Colombia. In the latter nation it is a street tree at Bogota.


Nectar is produced in the orange part of the flowers. The species is a significant honey plant in the eastern United States, yielding a dark reddish, fairly strong honey unsuitable for table honey but claimed to be favorably regarded by some bakers


The soft, fine-grained wood of tulip trees is known as "poplar" (short for "yellow-poplar") in the U.S., but marketed abroad as "American tulipwood" or by other names. It is very widely used where a cheap, easy-to-work and stable wood is needed. The sapwood is usually a creamy off-white color. While the heartwood is usually a pale green, it can take on streaks of red, purple, or even black; depending on the extractives content (i.e. the soil conditions where the tree was grown, etc.). It is clearly the wood of choice for use in organs, due to its ability to take a fine, smooth, precisely cut finish and so to effectively seal against pipes and valves. It is also commonly used for siding clapboards. Its wood may be compared in texture, strength, and softness to white pine.
Used for interior finish of houses, for siding, for panels of carriages, for coffin boxes, pattern timber, and wooden ware. During scarcity of the better qualities of white pine, tulip wood has taken its place to some extent, particularly when very wide boards are required.
It also has a reputation for being resistant to termites, and in the Upland South (and perhaps elsewhere) house and barn sills were often made of tulip poplar beams.


The tulip tree has been referenced in many poems and the namesakes of other poems, such as William Stafford's "Tulip Tree." It is also a plot element in the Edgar Allan Poe short story "The Gold-Bug".
Another form of art that the tulip tree is a major part of is wood carving. The tulip poplar can be very useful and has been one of the favorite types of trees for wood carving by sculptors such as Wilhelm Schimmel and Shields Landon Jones.


"The leaves are of unusual shape and develop in a most peculiar and characteristic manner. The leaf-buds are composed of scales as is usual, and these scales grow with the growing shoot. In this respect the buds do not differ from those of many other trees, but what is peculiar is that each pair of scales develops so as to form an oval envelope which contains the young leaf and protects it against changing temperatures until it is strong enough to sustain them without injury. When it has reached that stage the bracts separate, the tiny leaf comes out carefully folded along the line of the midrib, opens as it matures, and until it becomes full grown the bracts do duty as stipules, becoming an inch [25 mm] or more in length before they fall. The leaf is unique in shape, its apex is cut off at the end in a way peculiarly its own, the petioles are long, angled, and so poised that the leaves flutter independently, and their glossy surfaces so catch and toss the light that the effect of the foliage as a whole is much brighter than it otherwise would be.
The flowers are large, brilliant, and on detached trees numerous. Their color is greenish yellow with dashes of red and orange, and their resemblance to a tulip very marked. They do not droop from the spray but sit erect. The fruit is a cone 5 to 8 cm (2 to 3 in) long, made of a great number of thin narrow scales attached to a common axis. These scales are each a carpel surrounded by a thin membranous ring. Each cone contains sixty or seventy of these scales, of which only a few are productive. These fruit cones remain on the tree in varied states of dilapidation throughout the winter.


Lithophragma parviflorum is a species of flowering plant in the saxifrage family known by the common name smallflower woodland star. It is native to much of western North America from British Columbia to California to South Dakota and Nebraska, where it grows in several types of open habitat. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb growing erect or leaning with a naked flowering stem. The leaves are mainly located low on the stem, each cut into three lobes or divided into three lobed leaflets. The stem bears up to 14 flowers, each in a cuplike calyx of red or green sepals. The five petals are bright white, up to 1.6 centimeters long, and usually divided into three toothlike lobes.
Its bulblets may produce toxins capable of poisoning livestock, although rodents eat them with no known adverse effects.


The Flora of North America North of Mexico considers  L. parviflorum var. trifoliatum to be a separate species endemic to California. But the Jepson Manual considers it to be a variety of  L. parviflorum.
L. parviflorum var. parviflorum - occurs in the western US and Canada
L. parviflorum var. trifoliatum - a restricted variety endemic to California. Differs by having pink, fragrant flowers.


Lithosia quadra, the four-spotted footman, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is found in southern and central Europe then east across the Palearctic to the Amur River and Japan. It is also found in the south of Great Britain and Scandinavia.
The wingspan is 35–55 mm. The males are smaller than the females. There is strong sexual dimorphism in the imago, the males have gray wings with a yellow wing joint and a blue-black stripe at the front of the outer rim of the forewing. The females have yellow wings with two blue-black dots. It is the biggest species of the subfamily Lithosiinae.


The male is much smaller than the female brown grey with a leaden gloss, thorax and base of wings golden yellow, costa metallic blue green at the base. The female yellow, the forewing with a black-blue spot behind the centre of the costa and above the inner margin. The Japanese form, dives Butl, is said to have darker males but the comparison of a large number of specimens proves that this difference is not constant. The European specimens vary considerably, the females with regard to the size and the males in the colouring. In exceptional cases one of the dots (ab. unipuncta Spul.) or both (ab. impunctata Spul.) may be absent in the female, or replaced by a transverse band (ab. fasciata Spul, confluens Dumont)


The moth flies from June to September depending on the location. In the south of the area there is occasionally a second brood.
Larva slate grey, with thin longitudinal lines, a transverse black spot each across the back anteriorly, in the centre and behind, and subdorsally there are longitudinal rows of small reddish yellow warts. The larvae feed on lichen and algae growing on trees, especially oak, walls and stones. When the species becomes over-abundant a scarcity of food results; the larvae then attack the leaves and needles of trees, and may become injurious. Pupa black, with a porcelain gloss, stumpy and immobile.


Lithospermum canescens, or the hoary puccoon is a perennial herb endemic to eastern North America. The plant grows in a variety of habitats. It has golden yellow flowers which bloom from April to May.


Lithospermum canescens grows to 6–16 in (150–410 mm) in height, growing from a thick, red, woody taproot with one to several stems that are usually not branched. Its leaves are alternate and oblong, and lack a petiole. The leaves range around 1–2 in (25–51 mm) in length and have any width under 0.5 in (13 mm). Both the leaves and stems are grey-green and pubescent, meaning they are covering with many short, silky, erect trichomes, or hairs.
Its flowers are tubular and cluster at the terminal racemes, or at the end of stems. They are commonly yellow to orange in hue and are about 0.5 in (13 mm)  in diameter. The fruit of the plant is a hard, smooth, yellowish-white seedlike nutlet.


The genus name lithospermum comes from the Greek lethos, meaning "stone", and sperma, meaning "seed", referencing the stone-like seeds of the plant. The species name canscens means "white with age", referencing the short, white hairs that cover the plant.
The common name "hoary puccoon" also references the short, white trichomes on the plant, as hoary also means "white or grey with age, and the word "puccoon" comes from a Native American word meaning "a plant that yields a pigment".


The plant commonly grows in dry to moderately moist soils, in prairies, woodlands, and the edges of roads. It seldom grows in sandy soils.
It grows throughout the eastern United States, from eastern Nebraska to Georgia.


Lithospermum caroliniense, commonly known as the hairy puccoon or Carolina puccoon or Plains puccoon, is a flowering plant found in the Midwestern United States and Canadian provinces surrounding the Great Lakes. The plant grows in sandhills, pine barrens, and dry, sandy woods.


Dr. Robert W. Poole and Dr. Patricia Gentili describe the hairy puccoon as follows:
Flowers large (up to 1 inch in diameter) yellow-orange with 5 petals and basal parts of petals fused into a long corolla tube. Stamens hidden in corolla tube. Flowers arranged in a flat-topped cluster or weakly curled, short sprays. Stem and leaves coarsely hairy. Leaves broadest in the middle, tapering at either end, and outer margin smooth. Plant 1 to 2.5 feet in height.


To cultivate Lithospermum caroliniense a warm sunny position in a moderately fertile well-drained lime-free sandy soil is needed.
A red dye is obtained from the dried or pulverized roots. The powdered root has also been used in the treatment of chest wounds.


Lithospermum ruderale is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common name western stoneseed or lemonweed. It is native to western Canada and the western United States, where it can be found in many types of habitat. A perennial herb growing from a taproot and woody caudex, it is covered with fine, more or less upright, hairs, especially on the stems. It produces a cluster of erect leafy stems ranging from 20 to 50 centimetres (7+7⁄8 to 19+5⁄8 in) centimeters in height. The stems support lance-shaped leaves ranging from 2.5–10 cm (1–4 in) in length. Bunches of flowers with leaf-like bracts appear toward the top of the stem amongst the leaves. The corolla is fused at the base with five lobes which are light yellow, often slightly greenish, and about a centimeter long and wide. The style is short. The fruit consists of one or two, sometimes four, clustered glossy grey nutlets, 3.5 to 6, sometimes as much as 8 mm long.
The plant was used as a contraceptive by several Native American groups, including the Navajo and Shoshone. Studies on mice show the plant reduced their fertility. Plains Indians also used the roots to treat respiratory issues and cooked them as food.


Lobaria pulmonaria is a large epiphytic lichen consisting of an ascomycete fungus and a green algal partner living together in a symbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium—a symbiosis involving members of three kingdoms of organisms. Commonly known by various names like tree lungwort, lung lichen, lung moss, lungwort lichen, oak lungs or oak lungwort, it is sensitive to air pollution and is also harmed by habitat loss and changes in forestry practices. Its population has declined across Europe and L. pulmonaria is considered endangered in many lowland areas. The species has a history of use in herbal medicines, and recent research has corroborated some medicinal properties of lichen extracts.


It is a foliose lichen and its leaf-like thallus is green, leathery and lobed with a pattern of ridges and depressions on the upper surface. Bright green under moist conditions, it becomes brownish and papery when dry. This species often has a fine layers of hairs, a tomentum, on its lower surface. The cortex, the outer protective layer on the thallus surface, is roughly comparable to the epidermis of a green plant. The thallus is typically 5–15 centimetres (2.0–5.9 in) in diameter, with individual lobes 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) wide and up to 7 cm long. The asexual reproductive structures soredia and isidia are present on the thallus surface. Minute (0.5–1.5 mm in diameter) cephalodia—pockets of cyanobacteria—are often present on the lower surface of the thallus; these spots are conspicuously darker than the green surface of the thallus. Like other foliose lichens, the thallus is only loosely attached to the surface on which it grows.


The thallus contains internal structures known as cephalodia, characteristic of three-membered lichen symbioses involving two photobionts (the photosynthetic symbionts in the lichen relationship). These internal cephalodia, found between the "ribs" of the thallus surface, arise when blue-green algae (from the genus Nostoc) on the thallus surface are enveloped during mycobiont growth. Structurally, cephalodia consist of dense aggregates of Nostoc cells surrounded by thin-walled hyphae—this delimits them from the rest of the thallus which contains a loose structure of thick-walled hyphae. Blue-green cyanobacteria can fix atmospheric nitrogen, providing a nutrient for the lichen. The other photobiont of L. pulmonaria is the green alga Dictyochloropsis reticulata.


Lobaria pulmonaria has the ability to form both vegetative propagation and sexual propagules at an age of about 25 years.  In sexual reproduction, the species produces small reddish-brown discs known as apothecia containing asci, from which spores are forcibly released into the air (like ballistospores). Based on studies of ascospore germination, it has been suggested that L. pulmonaria spores use some mechanism to inhibit germination—the inhibition is lifted when the spores are grown in a synthetic growth medium containing an adsorbent like bovine serum albumin or α-cyclodextrin.
Dispersal by vegetative propagules (via soredia or isidia) has been determined as the predominant mode of reproduction in L. pulmonaria. In this method, the protruding propagules become dry and brittle during the regular wet/dry cycles of the lichen, and can easily crumble off the thallus. These fragments may develop into new thalli, either at the same locale or at a new site after dispersal by wind or rain. A number of steps are required for the development of the vegetative propagules, including the degeneration of the thallus cortex, replication of green algal cells, and entanglement of fungal hyphae with the green algal cells.  This steps lead to an increase in internal pressure which eventually breaks through the cortex. Continued growth leads to these granules being pushed upwards and out of the thallus surface.


It has a wide distribution in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa, preferring damp habitats with high rainfall, especially coastal areas. It is the most widely distributed and most common Lobaria species in North America. Associated with old-growth forests, its presence and abundance may be used as an indicator of forest age, at least in the Interior Cedar-Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone in eastern British Columbia. It is also found in pasture-woodlands. It usually grows on the bark of broad-leaved trees such as oak, beech and maple but will also grow on rocks. In the laboratory, L. pulmonaria has been grown on nylon microfilaments.
Various environmental factors are thought to affect the distribution of L. pulmonaria, such as temperature, moisture (average humidity, rapidity and frequency of wet-dry cycles), sunlight exposure, and levels of air pollution. Attempts to quantitatively evaluate the contribution of these factors to lichen growth is difficult because differences in the original environment from which the lichen thalli are collected will greatly affect heat and desiccation tolerances.
Due to declining population, L. pulmonaria is considered to be rare or threatened in many parts of the world, especially in lowland areas of Europe. The decline has been attributed to industrial forestry and air pollution, particularly acid rain. L. pulmonaria, like other lichens containing a blue-green algal component, are particularly susceptible to the effects of acid rain, because the subsequent decrease in pH reduces nitrogen fixation through inhibition of the algal nitrogenase enzyme.


Lobaria pulmonaria is known to contain a variety of acids common to lichens, such as stictic acid, desmethyl stictic acid, gyrophoric acid, tenuiorin, constictic acid, norstictic acid, peristictic acid, and methylnorstictic acid.  These compounds, collectively known as depsidones, are known to be involved in defense against grazing herbivores like lichen-feeding molluscs. It also contains the sugar alcohols D-arabitol, volemitol, in addition to several carotenoids (total content > 10 mg/kg), such as alpha carotene, beta carotene, and beta cryptoxanthin. The upper cortex of the lichen contains melanins that screen UV and PAR radiation from the photobiont. The synthesis of melanin pigments in the lichen increases in response to greater solar irradiation, and shade-adapted thalli are greenish-grey in the air-dry state, while sun-exposed thalli can be dark brown in color. This adaptation helps protect the photosymbiont D. reticulata, known to be relatively intolerant to high light levels.
Also known to be present are various steroids, namely ergosterol, episterol, fecosterol, and lichesterol.


Its shape somewhat resembles the tissue inside lungs and therefore it is thought to be a remedy for lung diseases based on the doctrine of signatures. The lichen's common English names are derived from this association. Gerard's book  The Herball or General Historie of plants (1597) recommends L. pulmonaria as medicinally valuable. It is still used for asthma, urinary incontinence and lack of appetite.  In India it is used as a traditional medicine to treat hemorrhages and eczema, and it is used as a remedy for coughing up blood by the Hesquiaht in British Columbia, Canada. An ethnophytotherapeutical survey of the high Molise region in central-southern Italy revealed that L. pulmonaria is used as an antiseptic, and is rubbed on wounds.
A hot-water extract prepared using this species has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and ulcer-preventing activities. Also, methanol extracts were shown to have a protective effect on the gastrointestinal system of rats, possibly by reducing oxidative stress and reducing the inflammatory effects of neutrophils. Furthermore, methanol extracts also have potent antioxidative activity and reducing power, probably due to the presence of phenolic compounds.


Lobaria pulmonaria has also been used to produce an orange dye for wool, in the tanning of leather, in the manufacture of perfumes and as an ingredient in brewing.


Lobelia anceps, commonly known as angled lobelia, is a small herbaceous plant in the family Campanulaceae it grows in several states of Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa. It is a small, perennial herb with blue to purple flowers.


Lobelia anceps is a prostrate to ascending, glabrous, perennial herb typically growing to a height of 50 cm (20 in),  occasionally branches rooting at nodes. The leaves are variable,  angled or more or less winged, linear-elliptic, oblong to oval spoon-shaped, 10–85 mm (0.39–3.35 in) long, 1.5–20 mm (0.059–0.787 in) wide, toothed or smooth, and often red to purplish at the base and the petiole 0–20 mm (0.00–0.79 in) long. The blue, purple or occasionally white flowers are borne singly in leaf axils on a pedicel 2–12 mm (0.079–0.472 in) long. The corolla usually 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long, the  two upper petals narrower than the three lower petals. Flowering occurs mostly in summer and autumn and the fruit is a conical shaped capsule covered in soft, upright hairs or smooth, 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long and 1.5–3 mm (0.059–0.118 in) in diameter.


Lobelia anceps was first formally described in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus and the description was published in Supplementum Plantarum. The specific epithet (anceps) means "two-sided, double, flattened", referring to the leaves.


Angled lobelia is found along the banks of pools, creeks and rivers along coastal areas in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. In Western Australia it grows between the Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia in sandy-peat-clay soils over granite or limestone.


Lobelia kalmii is a species of flowering plant with a distribution  primarily across Canada and the northern United States in temperate and boreal regions. It was formerly known as Lobelia strictiflora (Rydb.) It is commonly known as Kalm's lobelia, Ontario lobelia and Brook lobelia.


Lobelia kalmii is a small plant (10 – 40 cm) that grows in wet environments such as bogs, wet meadows, and rocky shorelines, including wet alvars, where it grows in calcareous soil or cracks between limestone rocks.
It is a perennial herb that has blue flowers with a white center. It has thin upper leaves and spatulate basal leaves. The plant starts flowering in July and lasts into September.


Although other species of Lobelia are cultivated for ornamental purposes, the small (1 cm) flowers of Lobelia kalmii have not endeared this plant to growers. However, it can be found through on seed exchanges among native plant enthusiasts. Its hardy nature may allow it to produce masses of scattered plants within downspout rock gardens. The plant attracts hummingbirds.


Lobelia puberula, or downy lobelia, is a perennial herbaceous wildflower in the Bellflower family (Campanulaceae) native to eastern and south central United States. It is the most common blue-flowered Lobelia in the Southeast. It grows in mesic (moderate moisture) to hydric (moist) habitats in sun or partial shade.


Downy lobelia is a perennial herb that grows up to 2.5 ft (1 m) tall. Leaves are simple with a toothed margin. The flowers are blue to violet, five-lobed, and bloom from July to October.
Lobelia puberula is similar to two other Lobelia species in to the Eastern United States, Lobelia inflata (Indian tobacco) and Lobelia siphilitica (great lobelia); all display the characteristic "lip" petal near the opening of the flower and the "milky" liquid the plant excretes.


Lobelia spicata, commonly called the pale spiked lobelia, is a flowering plant in the bellflower family.
It is native to North America, where it is widespread in southern Canada and the eastern United States. It is found in a variety of sunny and semi-shade habitats, including prairies, glades, woodlands, and disturbed areas. Several varieties have been recognized across its range, although their distinction is still uncertain.
It is a short-lived perennial, usually flowering below taller grasses and forbs. It produces a spike of white or pale blue flowers in the summer.


Lobocleta ossularia, the drab brown wave moth, is a moth in the family Geometridae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from California to Florida, north in the east to New York and Illinois.
The wingspan is 13–19 mm. The forewings are greyish-brown with black speckling and four dark brown lines. The hindwings are similar in both colour and pattern. Adults are on wing from June to September in California.
The larvae feed on Stellaria media, Galium species and Fragaria chiloensis.


Lobophora nivigerata, the powdered bigwing or two-lined aspen looper, is a moth in the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Francis Walker in 1862. It is found in North America.
The MONA or Hodges number for Lobophora nivigerata is 7640.


Loeseliastrum matthewsii is an annual herbaceous plant of the Polemoniaceae family known by the common name desert calico. It is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of western North America, where it is relatively common. It is a small plant with alternately arranged leaves, each up to 4 centimeters long and edged with bristle-tipped teeth. The flower is white, lavender, and purple streaked with a maroon arch over a white patch on each of the upper lobes.
The plant was named for Washington Matthews.


Festuca arundinacea was first described by the German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1771. It was later moved to the genus Schedonorus by the Belgian botanist Barthélemy Charles Joseph Dumortier in 1824 and again to the genus Lolium under the name Lolium arundinaceum by Stephen J. Darbyshire in 1993. The genus Schedonorus was resurrected in 1998 and the name Schedonorus arundinaceus (Schreb.) Dumort. was conserved against the earlier name Schedonorus arundinaceus Roem. & Schult. Best known by the name Festuca arundinacea, there is disagreement by taxonomists whether Festuca subgenus Schedonorus is allied more with the genus Lolium or best elevated to genus rank on its own.


It is a perennial bunchgrass, (i.e. grows in tufts), which grows 30–120 cm (12–47 in), flowering from June until August.  The panicles are green to purplish.  The spikelets have 5 to 14 flowers.
It has a short, blunt ligule compared to other grasses 1 mm high. The leaves are bright green and up to 4 mm across.


The clouded border (Lomaspilis marginata) is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is distributed across most of Europe to the Urals, western and central Siberia, Transbaikalia, Kazakhstan, Tian-Shan, northern Mongolia and parts of the Near East.


Lomaspilis marginata amurensis (Hedemann, 1881)
Lomaspilis marginata marginata (Linnaeus, 1758)
The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.


Lomatium dissectum is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names fernleaf biscuitroot and fernleaf desert parsley. It is native to much of western North America, where it grows in varied habitat. It is found in the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range, Rocky Mountains, Klamath Mountains, eastern Transverse Ranges and the Sierra Nevada in California.
Lomatium dissectum is a perennial herb reaching up to 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) tall, growing from a thick taproot. The leaves are mostly attached near the base of the plant, spreading with petioles up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and large blades divided into many small, narrow segments. The inflorescence is an umbel of many small yellow or reddish flowers, each cluster on a leafless stem up to 10 cm long. The fruits resemble pumpkin seeds.
There are two varieties of Lomatium dissectum, both of which can be either yellow or purple in color when in bloom, but are distinguished by longer or shorter stalks on the fruit.
A Lomatium dissectum root extract completely inhibited the cytopathic effects of rotavirus. It also showed antibiotic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium.


Lomatium utriculatum is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common name common lomatium or spring gold. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in many types of habitat including chaparral, and in the Sierra Nevada.


Lomatium utriculatum is a hairless to lightly hairy perennial herb growing up to .5 meters (1+1⁄2 feet) tall from a slender taproot. The leaves are basal and also grow from the middle and upper sections of the stem, 5–15 centimeters (2–6 inches) long on a 2–10 cm (3⁄4–4 in) stalk. Each leaf is generally divided and subdivided into many small linear lobes. Leaves higher on the stem have prominent sheaths. The inflorescence is a webbed umbel of yellow flowers with rays up to 12 cm (4+1⁄2 in) long, blooming from February to June and expanding to 25 cm (10 in) across while in fruit. The fruit is seedlike and 5–10 millimeters (3⁄16–3⁄8 in) long.


This plant was used as a food and medicinal remedy by many Native American groups, some of whom ate the fresh leaves raw.


Lomographa glomeraria, the gray spring moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1881. It is found in eastern North America, including Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
The wingspan is about 25 mm. Adults have finely mottled gray wings with scalloped lines. The lines are darker on the forewings than on the hindwings. The discal spots are very prominent. There is considerable geographic variation. Adults rest with their wings outstretched or overlapping.
The larvae feed on Prunus species.


Lomographa vestaliata, the white spring moth, is a moth in the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1857. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Newfoundland west to south-eastern British Columbia and south to Florida and Texas. The habitat consists of xeric shrubby edges and woodlands.
The wingspan is 15–23 mm. Adults have shiny white translucent wings. Adults are diurnal and on wing in spring.
The larvae have been recorded feeding on Prunus, Crataegus, Sorbus, Malus, Physocarpus and Viburnum species.


The Hobomok skipper (Lon hobomok) is a North American butterfly of the family Hesperiidae.


This small butterfly has slim, triangular wings.  The upper side of the male's wings is mostly orange with the margins being dark brown.


The only similar species in this skipper's range is the Zabulon skipper.
The Hobomok skipper has a more northern range and different flight period than the Zabulon skipper. They also have more squared wings. The upperside of the male Hobomok skipper's wings has thicker dark margins. The female Hobomok skipper has two forms; the normal form and the "Pocahontas" form. The upper side of the Pocahontas form has smaller glassy spots and has one glassy spot near the fore wing costa.


It ranges from eastern Alberta to Nebraska and east to the coasts of Canada and the US.


The Hobomok skipper can be found in a wide range of habitats such as clearings, woodland edges, woodland openings, and near roads.


This butterfly is on the wing from late spring to mid-summer with a single brood.


The white-rumped munia (Lonchura striata) or white-rumped mannikin, sometimes called striated finch in aviculture, is a small passerine bird from the family of waxbill "finches" (Estrildidae). These are not close relatives of the true finches (Fringillidae) or true sparrows (Passeridae).
It is native to tropical continental Asia and some adjacent islands, and has been naturalized in some parts of Japan. Its domesticated descendant, the society finch or Bengalese finch, is found worldwide as a pet and a biological model organism.


In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the white-rumped munia in his Ornithologie based on a specimen that he believed had been collected from the Isle de Bourbon (Réunion). The specimen is now assumed to have come from Sri Lanka. He used the French name Le gros-bec de l'Isle de Bourbon and the Latin Coccothraustes Borbonica. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the white-rumped munia. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Loxia striata and cited Brisson's work. The specific name striata is Latin for "striated ". This species is now placed in the genus Lonchura that was introduced by the English naturalist William Henry Sykes in 1832.
There are six subspecies:
L. s. acuticauda (Hodgson, 1836) –  northern Indian mainland below c. 1,500 metres ASL, north through the Himalayas foothills of Bhutan and Nepal to the Dehradun region of Uttarakhand, India across to Bangladesh to northern Indochina
Medium brown above, except on the face and remiges, buffy below
L. s. striata (Linnaeus, 1766) – southern Indian mainland, Sri Lanka
Dark chocolate-brown above, white below
L. s. fumigata (Walden, 1873) – Andaman Islands
L. s. semistriata (Hume, 1874) – Car Nicobar and Central (Nancowry) group, Nicobar Islands
L. s. subsquamicollis (Baker, ECS, 1925) – Malay Peninsula to southern Indochina
L. s. swinhoei (Cabanis, 1882) – east central and east China, Taiwan
A domesticated hybrid called the society finch, sometimes called Lonchura domestica is said by some sources to have L. s. striata in its ancestry, although other theories suggest contributions from the white-throated munia. The hybrid with numerous variants in plumage are thought to have been established by aviculturists in Japan.


The white-rumped munia is approximately 10 to 11 cm in length, with a stubby grey bill and a long black pointed tail. The adults are brown above and on the breast, and lighter below; the rump is white. There is some variation between the subspecies, but the sexes are almost impossible to distinguish in all subspecies; males have a more bulky head and bill.


The white-rumped munia is a common resident breeder ranging from the Indian subcontinent to southern China east to Taiwan, and through Southeast Asia south to Sumatra; it frequents open woodland, grassland and scrub, and is well able to adapt to agricultural land use. It is a gregarious bird which feeds mainly on seeds, moving through the undergrowth in groups and sometimes accompanying other birds such as puff-throated babblers (Pellorneum ruficeps). The nest is a large domed grass structure in a tree, bush or grass into which three to eight white eggs are laid. They are also known to use abandoned nests of Baya weaver. They are often found near water and have been observed feeding on algae. It has been suggested that they obtain protein from their diet of algae often in the species Spirogyra, which grows in paddy fields.
It is a common and widespread bird across its large range, and is thus not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. In fact, it may locally become a nuisance pest of millets and similar grains. Even the Nicobar Islands subspecies with its limited range seems to be able to cope well with human settlement. As it is a drab-coloured and rather reclusive bird inhabiting dense undergrowth, the white-rumped munia is not necessarily conspicuous even where it occurs in considerable numbers.


Lonicera canadensis (American fly honeysuckle or Canada fly honeysuckle) is a flowering deciduous, perennial,  phanerophytic shrub which is monoclinous and grows 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) tall. It is the only member of its genus with hairless leaf structures. It typically flowers from the last week of April until the third or fourth week of May. Fruit appears approximately the first week of June until the first week of August. The fruit is fed upon by a variety of avian frugivores including the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) and Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).
The seeds can remain viable after being maintained for several years in dry storage at room temperature.
Habitat: Dry to moist upland woods, occasionally found in coniferous swamps and growing along streams.
Stems: The main stems are light brown round, fibrous or furrowed bark not exfoliating,  ascending or erect. The branches grow ascending or horizontal.
Distribution: Native to northeastern North America.
United States—CT, GA, IA, IL, IN?, KY?, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV
Canada—NB, NS, ON, PE, QC
Rarity Status Global Conservation Status Rank—G5
Threatened and Endangered Information:
Lonicera canadensis Bartram ex Marsh.
This plant is listed by the U.S. federal government or a state. Common names are from state and federal lists. Click on a place name to get a complete protected plant list for that location.
Indiana: American fly-honeysuckle, Extirpated
Maryland: Canada honeysuckle, Endangered
New Jersey: American fly-honeysuckle, Endangered
Tennessee: American fly-honeysuckle, Special Concern
Wetland Indicator Status: FACU (Facultative Upland) Usually occurs in non-wetlands (estimated probability 67%–99%), but occasionally found on wetlands (estimated probability 1%-33%).


Lonicera ciliosa, the orange honeysuckle or western trumpet honeysuckle is a honeysuckle native to forests of western North America. A deciduous shrub growing to 6 m (20 ft) tall with hollow twigs, the leaves are opposite, oval, 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long with the last pair on each twig merged to form a disk. The flowers are orange-yellow, 2–4 cm (0.79–1.57 in) long, with five lobes and trumpet shaped; they are produced in whorls above the disk-leaf on the ends of shoots. The fruit is a translucent orange-red berry less than 1 cm (0.39 in) diameter.


The fruits are edible either raw or cooked, but are not a common food.


Lonicera dioica (limber honeysuckle, glaucous honeysuckle) is a vine in the honeysuckle family native to Canada and the eastern and central United States. Lonicera dioica comprises four variations:  var. Dasygyna, var. Dioica, var. Douglasii, and var. Orientalis.


Lonicera involucrata, the bearberry honeysuckle, bracted honeysuckle, twinberry honeysuckle, Californian Honeysuckle, twin-berry, or black twinberry, is a species of honeysuckle native to northern and western North America.


It is found from southern Alaska east across boreal Canada to Quebec, and south through the western United States to California, and to Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico. It grows at elevations from sea level to 2,900 m. While its conservation status is considered to be secure through most of its range, black twinberry is considered vulnerable in Alaska, Manitoba, and Colorado and critically imperiled in Wisconsin.
It grows in moist, wooded areas, especially in clearings and on the edges of wetlands. Its Wetland Indicator Status is FAC+, so it is equally likely to be found in wetlands and non-wetlands.


It is a large shrub that can grow 0.5–5 m high, with shoots with a quadrangular cross-section.
The leaves are elliptic to oval-shaped, 3–16 cm long and 2–8 cm broad; they are hairy along the margins and on the underside, and have a distinctive abruptly acuminate tip. They are of opposite arrangement.
The flowers are yellow, tubular, hairy, 1–2 cm long, and are monoecious; they are produced in pairs subtended by a pair of reddish basal bracts 2–4 cm across.
The fruit is a 6–12 mm diameter black berry containing several small seeds, ripening in mid-to-late summer.


There are two varieties:
Lonicera involucrata var. involucrata. Most of the species' range, except as below; in California only in the Sierra Nevada. Leaves thin; flowers yellow.
Lonicera involucrata var. ledebourii (Eschsch.) Jeps. Coastal California and southern Oregon. Leaves thick, leathery; flowers tinged orange to red outside.


It is often used as an ornamental plant. It is resistant to air pollution, and can be kept in a large garden. The berries may be edible or very unpalatable, or even poisonous- Pacific Northwest Coast indigenous groups referred to them as 'monster food' and 'crow berry' for this reason.
It is commonly used in restoration applications throughout its native range, especially in riparian zones for stream bank stabilization.
Native American groups such as the Quileute, Kwakwaka’wakw, and Haida made use of the plant in various ways. The berries were used to make black pigment and hair dye, and the bark, berries and leaves were made into poultices and teas. The bark was used along with willow bark to weave clothing.


The berries are eaten by bears, birds, and small mammals, and the flowers are an important source of nectar for hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths. The twigs and leaves are browsed by deer. However, in some parts of its range the plants are not abundant enough to be a staple food for wildlife.


Lonicera japonica, known as Japanese honeysuckle and golden-and-silver honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle native to eastern Asia. It is often grown as an ornamental plant, but has become an invasive species in a number of countries. Japanese honeysuckle is used in traditional Chinese medicine.


Lonicera japonica is a twining vine able to climb up to 10 m (33 ft) high or more in trees, with opposite, simple oval leaves 3–8 cm (1.2–3.1 in) long and 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) broad. When its stems are young, they are slightly red in color and may be fuzzy. Older stems are brown with peeling bark, and are often hollow on the inside. The flowers are double-tongued, opening white and fading to yellow, and sweetly vanilla scented. The fruit, which is produced in fall, is a black spherical berry 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) diameter containing a few seeds. While the nectar from the flowers can be safely consumed by humans, all other parts of the plant have the potential to be toxic.


There are three subspecies of Lonicera japonica:


Even though it is a highly invasive and destructive plant, this species is often sold by American nurseries as the cultivar 'Hall's Prolific' (Lonicera japonica var. halliana), and in the UK as the cultivar 'Halliana'. The cultivar is also known as Hall's Japanese honeysuckle. It is an effective groundcover and has strong-smelling flowers. It can be cultivated by seed, cuttings, or layering. In addition, it will spread itself via shoots if given enough space to grow. The variety L. japonica var. repens has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Japanese honeysuckle flowers are edible to humans and appreciated for their sweet-tasting nectar. The flowers can also be a significant source of food for deer, rabbits, hummingbirds, and other wildlife.


In traditional Chinese medicine,  Lonicera japonica is called rěn dōng téng (忍冬藤); literally "winter enduring vine") or jīn yín huā (Chinese: 金銀花; literally "gold-silver flower"). Alternative Chinese names include er hua (二花) and shuang hua (雙花), meaning double-[color] flowers.
The dried leaves and flowers (Flos Lonicerae Japonicae) are employed in traditional Chinese medicine, being used to treat fever, cold-related headache, cough, thirst, certain inflammation including sore throat, skin infection, and tumor necrosis.
Lonicera japonica should be avoided for patients with G6PD deficiency, because the herb will lead to hemolysis in such patients.


The antiviral action of loniflavone, a compound found in Lonicera japonica,  has been investigated in computational studies, in which the ability of this compound to bind with high affinity to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated, an early step towards drug development for the disease caused by that virus.


Japanese honeysuckle has become naturalized in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, and much of the US, including Hawaii, as well as a number of Pacific and Caribbean islands. It is classified as a noxious weed in Texas, Illinois, and Virginia, and is banned in Indiana and New Hampshire. It is listed on the New Zealand National Pest Plant Accord as an unwanted organism.
Lonicera japonica was initially brought to the United States from Japan in the early 1900s as an ornamental plant. It is still deliberately planted in the United States for reasons such as erosion control or forage for deer, but has become invasive in many areas. It prefers to invade areas that have been disturbed, such as roadsides or floodplains. It will generally only invade forests when the canopy has been opened by logging or fallen trees, as it grows less vigorously in the shade. Once it has invaded an area, Lonicera japonica grows rapidly and outcompetes native plants for sunlight and nutrients. It proliferates using both sexual and vegetative reproduction, producing seeds that are spread by animals and expanding locally via rhizomes. Eventually, it will form a dense thicket which prevents other plant species from germinating in that area. Due to its suppression of germination in the understory, Lonicera japonica also prevents the regeneration of trees.
Management of invasive Lonicera japonica has been achieved through a variety of means. Small patches can be removed by hand, or using simple digging tools, but all plant parts including roots and rhizomes must be removed to prevent resprouting. Larger patches can be removed through repeated mowing, but application of herbicide is also recommended to prevent regrowth. There has been some study of using controlled burns to remove Lonicera japonica, but the underground portion of the plant is usually able to survive and resprout, limiting the effectiveness of this method. Browsing by herbivores may limit its growth, but is unlikely to fully eliminate it. There is currently no known biological control for Lonicera japonica.


Lonicera japonica contains methyl caffeate, 3,4-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, methyl 3,4-di-O-caffeoylquinate, protocatechuic acid, methyl chlorogenic acid, and luteolin. The two biflavonoids, 3′-O-methyl loniflavone and loniflavone, along with luteolin and chrysin, can be isolated from the leaves. Other phenolic compounds present in the plant are hyperoside, chlorogenic acid, and caffeic acid.  The two secoiridoid glycosides, loniceracetalides A and B, can be isolated, together with 10 known iridoid glycosides, from the flower buds.  The plant also contains the saponins loniceroside A and B and the antiinflammatory loniceroside C.


Lonicera maackii, the Amur honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae that is native to temperate western Asia; specifically in northern and western China south to Yunnan, Mongolia, Primorsky Krai in southeastern Siberia, Korea, and, albeit rare there, central and northern Honshū, Japan.
Lonicera maackii is a listed endangered species in Japan. It has escaped from cultivation and naturalized in New Zealand and the eastern United States; in the woodlands of the U.S. it is a significant invasive species.


The plant is a large, deciduous shrub that grows a maximum of 6 metres (20 ft) tall with stems of a maximum of 10 centimetres (4 in) in diameter. The leaves are oppositely arranged, 5–9 centimetres (2–3+1⁄2 in) long and 2–4 centimetres (3⁄4–1+5⁄8 in) broad, with an entire margin, and with at least some rough pubescence.
The flowers are produced in pairs, and commonly several pairs are produced together in clusters; they are 2 centimetres (3⁄4 in) long, have two lips, begin white and later turn yellow or pale orange in color; they bloom from middle of spring to early summer. The fruit is a bright red to black, semi-translucent berry, 2–6 millimetres (5⁄64–15⁄64 in) in diameter, that contains numerous small seeds; they ripen in autumn and are eaten by birds, which disperse the seeds in their droppings.


The species name "maackii" is derived from Richard Maack, a Russian naturalist of the 19th century. Its common name "Amur honeysuckle" is from its native range surrounding the Amur River, which demarcates the border between Siberia and Manchuria.
Some Internet sources name the species authority as "(Rupr.) Herder", but the correct authority is "(Rupr.) Maxim".


Amur honeysuckle is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its attractive flowers and as a hedge. Many cultivars have been selected for horticulture, including "Erubescens" with pink flowers and "Rem Red" with an erect form.
The plant is adaptable and flourishes in a wide range of conditions. In the United States, it was planted to control erosion and to form hedges. It readily self-propagates via birds dispersing its seeds, and quickly spreads into habitats for which it has no community connectivity.
It grows rapidly and prefers shady habitats such as woodland understories, neglected urban areas, and fence rows. It can form very dense thickets.
The flowers are sometimes savored by children, who remove blossoms and pull off their bottoms so as to suck out the sweet nectar in the centers. However, the berries are mildly poisonous to humans and therefore should not be consumed.


Because of the invasive nature of this species, regardless of whether it is banned locally, it is imprudent to cultivate Amur honeysuckle in climates similar to those where the species has invaded, e.g. eastern North America.
Possible alternative shrubs that are also fast growing, shade tolerant, and deciduous, but not invasive in eastern US include:
Calycanthus floridus
Cornus sericea
Hydrangea species
Viburnum cassinoides
Viburnum dentatum
Viburnum prunifolium
Viburnum trilobum

More native shrubs for use the Midwestern United States are listed in the pamphlet Curse of the Bush Honeysuckles!.


L. maackii produces various secondary metabolites to deter insect herbivory. Cipollini et al 2007 find seasonal variation in the levels of chlorogenic acid, apigenin, apigenin-7-glucoside, luteolin and luteolin-7-glucoside, and confirm their deterrent effect.


Because of its well-documented invasiveness, propagation of this plant is illegal or controlled in some of the United States, where it is an alien species. The species is named "invasive, banned" in Connecticut, "prohibited" in Massachusetts, as an invasive species in Tennessee, as an invasive species in Ohio, as a "Class B noxious weed" in Vermont, and as an invasive species in Wisconsin.
It has been suggested that plants growing outside their native range, in eastern Asia, should be removed and replaced by non-invasive alternatives.


In the understories of deciduous woodlands of the eastern United States it forms dense thickets, the shade of whose canopies prevent the growth of native shrubs, juvenile trees, and wild flowers. Uncontrolled, these growths result in almost monocultural thickets of Amur honeysuckle. The species gravely jeopardizes not only the diversity of the invaded ecosystems but even the regeneration of woodlands, because it reduces the growth and diversity of native seedlings. Additional studies indicate that it negatively affects birds and tadpoles. However, other studies have shown a mixture of positive and negative effects on birds, depending on species (McNeish and McEwan, 2016). Effects on invertebrate diversity can also be negative or positive, depending on the taxonomic group (Loomis and Cameron, 2014).
Even if L. maackii shrubs are removed, the affected habitat may not recover absent substantial restoration effort.
The relationship between white-tailed deer and L. maackii is complex, with deer playing a significant role in consuming the berries, dispersing the seeds, and browsing the foliage; the presence of L. maackii may prevent deer from browsing understory vegetation, which can be desirable if a native understory is present, but undesirable if other invasive species dominate the understory. A study conducted in the vicinity of St. Louis, Missouri in 2010 indicated that the plant increases the risk of tick-borne diseases such as Erlichiosis and Lyme disease in suburban natural areas by attracting deer and consequently increasing the presence of infected ticks. Furthermore, experimental removal of the plant was shown to reduce deer activity and the number of infected ticks by shifting ticks' blood meals from deer.


The species is controlled by cutting, flaming, or burning the plant to the level of its roots and repetition of this in two-week increments until the nutrient reserves in the roots are depleted. To ensure eradication, herbicide may be applied to freshly cut stumps. Control by prescribed burning has been found to be most effective during the phase of seed dispersal in late summer and early autumn.
It can also be controlled by annual applications of glyphosate that thoroughly saturate the foliage, or by grubbing the shallowly rooted juvenile plants, but these two methods increase labor cost and disrupt the soil.
This species has been found to be a host for the leaf-mining moth Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella in North America.


Lonicera morrowii, the Morrow's honeysuckle, is a deciduous honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Japan, Korea, and Northeast China. It is a shrub, reaching a height of 2–2.5 m, with oblong leaves 4–6 cm long. It leafs out quite early in the spring, and in North America is commonly the first deciduous shrub with foliage in March. The flowers are white to pale yellow, and the fruit is a dark red berry 7–8 mm diameter containing numerous seeds.  The berries, while eaten frequently by birds, are considered poisonous to humans.  It is colloquially called "bush honeysuckle" in the United States, and is considered an invasive species.
In cultivation, Lonicera morrowii has hybridized with other shrubby species of Lonicera. Crossed with L. tatarica, it forms the invasive hybrid L. × bella. It can also hybridize with L. ruprechtiana.


Morrow's honeysuckle is confirmed as a highly invasive species over the northeastern third of the United States. Morrow's honeysuckle thrives at the edges of forests, roads, or other natural or man-made barriers, but is not limited to them, and is found in both mature and disturbed forests. In some areas, Morrow's honeysuckle is the dominant plant species, especially in areas of disturbed ecological succession. It is suspected that Lonicera morrowii is allelopathic, and may capitalize on disturbed ecological succession by establishing itself and then preventing the growth of plants underneath it. With a sufficiently established thicket of honeysuckle, even other shade-tolerant, invasive species, such as fortune's spindle have difficulty growing underneath it, whether due to its suspected allelopathic activity or through soil depletion.


Due to its early leafing, Morrow's honeysuckle is particularly harmful to spring ephemerals, flowers that evolved to bloom briefly in the spring before other plants leafed out.
Many cedar waxwings' wax spots in the eastern United States have taken on an unusual orange hue in the last 35 years, a phenomenon that has been attributed to Lonicera morrowii. The chemical involved in this color change is rhodoxanthin, a red dye found in the berries of Morrow's honeysuckle.


Lonicera periclymenum, common names honeysuckle, common honeysuckle, European honeysuckle, or woodbine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae native to much of Europe, North Africa, Turkey and the Caucasus. It is found as far north as southern Norway and Sweden.


Growing to 7 m (23 ft) or more in height, it is a vigorous deciduous twining climber, occasionally keeping its old leaves over winter. In the UK it is one of two native honeysuckles, the other being Lonicera xylosteum. It is often found in woodland or in hedgerows or scrubland.
The tubular, two-lipped flowers, creamy white or yellowish in colour, may be flushed with pink or red on the outside and in bud, and are carried in showy clusters at the ends of the shoots. The flowers are highly scented by night, much less so by day.


The plant is usually pollinated by moths or long-tongued bees and develops bright red berries. Dormice make summer nests for their young from honeysuckle bark; they also eat the flowers, which are a good source of energy-rich nectar. Night-flying moths such as the hummingbird hawk-moth can detect the scent of honeysuckle flowers up to a quarter of a mile away. The clusters of red berries are eaten in the autumn by birds such as thrushes, bullfinches and warblers.


Lonicera periclymenum is one of several honeysuckle species valued in the garden, for its ability to twine around other plants, or to cover unsightly walls or outbuildings; and for the intense fragrance of its profuse flowers in summer. It needs to be planted with its roots in the shade, and its flowering top in sun or light shade. Plants need to be chosen with care as they can grow to a substantial size. The cultivars 'Graham Thomas' and 'Serotina' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night's Dream he refers to woodbine/honeysuckle twice:
(Act II Scene 1) "Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine"
(Act IV Scene 1) "So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle gently entwine"
It seems probable that the first quotation is referring to the honeysuckle L. periclymenum, a common sight in hedgerows in Shakespeare’s time. The second quotation is somewhat more confusing. It is thought that on this occasion, "woodbine" refers to a species of Convolvulus, also very common but nowadays called "bindweed".


Lonicera sempervirens (commonly known as coral honeysuckle, trumpet honeysuckle, or scarlet honeysuckle) is a species of honeysuckle vine native to the eastern United States which is known for its reddish flowers.


Lonicera sempervirens is best recognized by trumpet-shaped and coral to reddish flowers. The leaves and stems are waxy, a common trait in the Honeysuckle genus. It is a twining vine growing to 20 ft or more through shrubs and young trees. The leaves are produced in opposite pairs, oval, up to 5 cm long and 4 cm broad; the leaves immediately below the flowers are perfoliate, joined at the base in a complete ring round the shoot.  When born, their flowers are whorled on the end. They are present with red berries on them that are less than 1 cm width and length. The berries are inedible and grow from summer to fall. Their leaves are somewhat evergreen. The species is also flammable, which leads to it not being recommended for being planted close to residences. The flowers are produced on new growth in clusters of several groups of three together, tubular, 5 cm long, with five small lobes opening at the tip to expose the stamens and stigma. The bark is green and fuzzy when younger but becomes a light brown as it ages. The older stems get more of a red-orange color.  Several cultivars have been selected for variation in flower color, including 'Magnifica' (flowers red outside, yellow inside), 'Sulphurea' (yellow flowers), and 'Superba' (bright scarlet flowers).


Lonicera sempervirens is most common in eastern North America, but has occurred as far west as Texas. It is found prominently in the southeastern US. It is listed as endangered in Maine, the only state in which it has any legal status. Although introduced in parts of New England,  populations of L. sempervirens have been found that seem to be growing natively in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. It is also considered extremely rare in Rhode Island. Lonicera sempervirens is most common in coastal habitats.


Lonicera sempervirens was first described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his treatise Species Plantarum in 1753. Varieties of L. sempervirens are Lonicera sempervirens L. var. hirsutula Rehder, Lonicera sempervirens L. var. minor Aiton, and Lonicera sempervirens L. var. sempervirens. Phenianthus sempervirens (L.) Raf is a synonym. Hybrids of the species include Lonicera × tellmanniana and Lonicera × heckrottii.


Lonicera sempervirens is often used as an alternative to the invasive Lonicera japonica across the east coast of North America. It is popular to grow in gardens or recreational areas as it is considered low maintenance. It is also used to attract hummingbirds and butterflies for pollinator gardens. It is also popular to plant for a flowering effect because of its attractive red color. The species is mainly used ornamentally on fences or lattices. The species can be propagated by either stem cutting or by seed. It has been used to treat asthma and bee stings in Native American traditions.


Lonicera sempervirens can grow in many areas due to its cold hardiness. Lonicera sempervirens prefers sunny and moist areas but is also drought resistant. Coral honeysuckle can live in soils such as clay or loam, and only needs about 3 to 6 feet of space to grow. It prefers acidic soil with a pH of 6 and prefers soil with good drainage. It can grow in full sun or in fully shaded areas.  It can tolerate living near deer and walnuts as it is not a preferred browse.


Lonicera sempervirens is used by many animals for food, most commonly used for nectar by butterflies and hummingbirds. It attracts bees, hummingbirds, moths, and even songbirds.  Birds such as quail, purple finch, and American robin eat the red berries.  Ruby-throated hummingbirds and insects pollinate the bright red to pinkish-red flowers from mid-spring to fall. It hosts the caterpillars of spring azures and snowberry clearwing moths. Lonicera sempervirens is used moderately for animal cover and has a relatively low nutritional value.


Lonicera subspicata is a species of honeysuckle known by the common name southern honeysuckle. It is native to Baja California, California, and northern Baja California Sur, where it is known from several areas in mountain and coastal habitat, particularly chaparral. It is a vining shrub which usually climbs on other plants for support.


This plant grows twining or reclining on shrubs, and may reach 9 to 24 decimeters in length. The herbage is glabrous to puberulent. The leaves are generally 1 to 4 cm long, with the base of the leaf blade round or more or less tapered, and the tip of the leaf shaped round or obtuse. Upper pairs are not fused around the stem. The inflorescence is a long, fuzzy spike of light yellow flowers each about a centimeter long. The flower has an upper and lower lip with hairy stamens and style protruding. The corolla is 8 to 12 mm long, colored pale yellow, and often hairy. The fruit is around 8 mm in size, and is a red or yellow berry.


Rehder Johnston's honeysuckle
Synonyms: Lonicera subspicata var. johnstonii D.D. Keck
In this variety, the leaves are shaped wide-elliptic to more or less round, and are less than twice as long as they are wide. It is found in Butte County, the California Coast Ranges, the Transverse Ranges, and the Peninsular Ranges into Baja California. Flowering is from June to July


Santa Barbara honeysuckle
In this variety, the leaves are shaped narrowly elliptic, and are 3 to 4 times longer than they are wide. It is found only on Santa Catalina Island and the western Transverse Ranges. Flowering is from April to May.


This shrub occurs from the San Francisco Bay Area and the northern Sierra Nevada south through the Coast Ranges, into the Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges that extend through Baja California. It reaches its southern distribution at the Tres Vírgenes in Baja California Sur. It is also found on Cedros Island.


For variety denudata, the fruit is reportedly edible. In cultivation, the plant makes a drought-tolerant vining shrub that is good cover for a low fence or the north side of a house. It will climb with support. It is cold hardy to 25 degrees Fahrenheit.


Lonicera tatarica is a species of honeysuckle known by the common name Tatarian honeysuckle. Native to Eurasia, the plant is one of several exotic bush honeysuckles present in North America, being considered an invasive species there.


Lonicera tatarica is a bushy shrub which may approach 3 meters (10 feet) in height. The twigs can be an array of colors from green to brown with a hollow brown pith. The plant is lined with oval or rounded simple leaves 3 to 6 centimetres (1+1⁄4 to 2+1⁄4 inches) long. The leaves and stem range from 2.5–6.5 cm (1–2+1⁄2 in) long, 1.25–2.5 cm (1⁄2–1 in) wide. They are egg shaped and both hairless and toothless.
The inflorescence ranges in color from deep rose to light pink, and can also be white. The petals are typically 2–2.5 cm (3⁄4–1 in) long, with a slender tube and 2 lips. The upper lip contains 4 lobes, the middle two erect and fused near the base. The white to pink to crimson red flowers are each about 1.5 cm (5⁄8 in) long, their stamens and styles protruding. The fruit is a shiny orange or red seed-containing berry up to 1 cm wide. The berries are attractive to wildlife. The plant forms thickets and spreads easily when birds and other animals consume the fruits. The flowers have a sweet smell that is reminiscent of honeysuckle.
In cultivation, L. tatarica has hybridized with other shrubby species of Lonicera. Crossed with L. morrowii, it forms the invasive hybrid L. × bella. It can also hybridize with L. ruprechtiana and L. xylosteum.


L. tatarica is native to Siberia and other parts of eastern Asia, especially China. It is also known to grow in the Himalayas. After being introduced to North America as an ornamental plant in 1752, became a widespread introduced species and noxious weed. It is known across the continent west to Alaska and California, where it easily grows in disturbed habitat.
Its preferred environment is partial sun with moist, loamy soil. It is also able to grow in full shade or sun, and in dry or sandy soils.


The species threatens native habitats because the plants grow quickly and form thick, impenetrable mats that smother their competitors. It most commonly invades thickets, open woodlands, roadsides and fence rows. Animals such as birds and mammals disperse the seeds, causing a rapid spread which often leads to a dense understory thicket that not only restricts native plant growth but also inhibits biodiversity. Once L. tatarica is introduced into an environment, it is hard to control the growth of the plant in nature because honeysuckles grow at high density. In addition to high densities, L. tatarica has the ability to suppress the growth of other native plants in the area, thus creating monocultures. Problems reported with the invasion of L. tatarica include depletion of soil moisture and nutrients, allelopathic chemicals functioning to chemically alter the growth of native plants, and reductions in the density of tree seedlings in the area.
The wood invokes a behavioural response in about half of domestic cats. Of cats that do not respond to catnip, one third respond to Tatarian honeysuckle.


The species has a low poisonous severity level to humans, with no reports of its fatal consumption. Eating its berries is not recommended, causing symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain.


Lonicera xylosteum, commonly known as fly honeysuckle, European fly honeysuckle, dwarf honeysuckle or fly woodbine is a deciduous shrub.
The glossy red (or occasionally yellow) berries of this shrub are mildly poisonous to humans – children who ingest a large number (c. 30) of berries may experience abdominal pain and vomiting.


The long-crested eagle (Lophaetus occipitalis) is an African bird of prey. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae. It is currently placed in a monotypic genus Lophaetus. It is characterized by the feathers making up the shaggy crest. It is found throughout mid- to southern-Africa with differing home ranges due to food availability and suitable habitat area but lives mainly on forest edges and near moist areas. Breeding usually occurs year-round depending on food availability with 1 to 2 eggs being laid as is characteristic by raptors. Furthermore, as a raptor species, they commonly eat smaller mammals, however other vertebrates and invertebrates are also consumed.


The long-crested eagle is a distinctive eagle when perched due to the long, shaggy crest and all dark plumage often called Kamusungu-sungu in Uganda. The adults are blackish-brown with long, thin feathers growing from the rear of the crown which are held erect to form a crest. The secondary feathers are black barred with light grey and with broad black tips, the primary feathers and median underwing coverts are white, forming a noticeable white patch on the upper and lower surfaces of the wing which is visible in flight. The tail is black, barred with pale grey. The eyes of adults are bright yellow but can be darker in females, and the cere and feet are yellow, paling to white in males. The juveniles are similar to the adults, but the plumage is lighter in color and the crest is not developed and their eyes are grey. The body length is 53–58 cm (21–23 in) and the weight of the female is 1,300–1,500 g (46–53 oz), while the smaller male is 912–1,300 g (32.2–45.9 oz).


The long-crested eagle occurs in sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and Gambia eastwards to Ethiopia and south to the Eastern Cape, in South Africa, northern Namibia and northern Botswana. It is generally regarded as sedentary, but in arid areas may be nomadic depending on the rains.


The long-crested eagle is a bird of forest edges and moist woodland, particularly if that habitat is near to grassland, marsh, a river or a stream; it can also be found in drier woodland, mixed farmland, grazing land, the edges of sugar-cane plantations and orchards. Long-crested eagles will also use exotic plantations such as those of pine or eucalyptus. They range in altitude from sea level to 3,000 m (9,800 ft), but it is unusual to find them above 2,000 m (6,600 ft).


The home ranges in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in South Africa of male long-crested eagles is between 0.56 to 11.6 kilometers² and the home range of females is 0.5 to 15.08 kilometers². Some individuals in KZN were observed to be 20 km away from the center of their home range. In the Mpumalanga Province, the home range has been reported to be between 25 to 35 kilometers². Long-crested eagles in Zimbabwe have been studied to have a home range of 40 to 65 kilometers². Finally, within these home range sizes, the mean distance travelled in a study by Maphalala et al. was about 2 kilometers due to their sit and wait approach discussed in the food section below.


The long-crested eagle is territorial and the male displays during courtship in which he performs steep dives and also uses a rocking, level display flight, they call frequently during these displays. Both sexes build the nest, constructing a stick platform with a bowl-shaped depression in the centre which is lined with green leaves. The nest is normally situated in the mid-canopy and very close to the trunk of a tree near the forest edge. If available, the long-crested eagle will often reuse the nest of another bird, for example, the black sparrowhawk or lizard buzzard. It breeds all year but most eggs are laid in July–November. The female lays 1-2 eggs, and she takes most of the burden of incubating them, incubation lasting 42 days, as she incubates the male provides her with food. As is normal in birds of prey the eggs are laid asynchronously, as much as two weeks apart, and the female begins incubation as soon as the first egg is laid which means that hatching is also asynchronous. When the young hatch they are initially mainly fed by the male. The period from hatching to fledging is about 53 days, and the juveniles remain dependent on the adults for about a further 2–3 months. The nests have been recorded as being preyed upon by monkeys Cercopithecus spp  and genets.
Long-crested eagles breed throughout the year if enough food is available. They also maintain their nesting territories throughout the year, however, females have been shown to leave the territory during the non-breeding season. Furthermore, home ranges during the breeding season have been observed to be smaller and expand during the non-breeding season. Females forage closer to their chicks and travel farther to find their meals as the chicks grow and can fend for themselves. There are potential competitors for the long-crested eagles nest including black sparrow hawks and Egyptian geese. Nesting space itself is also competed for by other raptorial species, including black kites, Wahlberg's eagles, jackal buzzards, and African harrier-hawks.


Up to 98% of the diet of the long-crested eagle consists of rodents. In southern Africa the rodents taken included greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus), vlei rats Otomys spp., African marsh rat (Dasmys incomtus) and four-striped grass mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio). Birds, including owls and the young of other raptors, frogs and lizards, invertebrates and even fish and fruit were also recorded as forming part of the diet of this species.
The long-crested eagle is a "sit and wait" hunter which waits on a perch, scanning the ground and swoops on prey with a gliding flight when it come to the bird's notice.


Although currently placed in the monotypic genus Lophaetus recent research has suggested that this species forms a clade with the spotted eagles, greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga), Indian spotted eagle (Clanga hastata)  and lesser spotted eagle (Clanga pomarina). The merged genus would be called Lophaetus but most authorities regard that further work on the classification of the booted eagles is required and retain the long-crested eagle in the monotypic Lophaetus. The lineage of Lophaetus is thought to have diversified in a period between 5 to 7 million years ago. C


The population is estimated to be in the tens of thousands with an increasing population trend.  New areas of suitable habitat are being made for rodents due to habitat fragmentation and thus their food source is increasing which as a result is expected to cause an upward population trend in the long-crested eagle. Although the long-crested eagle is listed as least concern according to the IUCN Red List, the species still encounters threats. These include habitat fragmentation and loss, poisoning, and accidents with power lines or vehicles. A more recent threat to the long-crested eagle is the high abundance of doves which contain trichomoniasis or canker. Predation of the doves by these eagles is becoming increasingly common, passing on the infection and causing major damage to the crop, pharynx, and mouth. Therefore, humans feeding doves leads to increase in dove populations and thus more disease spread to eagles.


Lophocampa annulosa, the Santa Ana tussock moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It was described by Francis Walker in 1855. It is found in southern Texas, southern Arizona, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Suriname, Brazil, Argentina and Trinidad.
Adults are tan with chainlike light brown markings and a brown line with a small white dot.
Larvae have been recorded feeding on Aegiphila falcata.


The larva, a caterpillar, is completely covered in long, hairlike setae arranged in spreading tufts. Most are white, but there are black tufts along the middle of the back, and four long black hair pencils, two near the front, and two near the back.  There are black spots along the sides, and the head capsule is black. The hairs cause itchy rashes (contact dermatitis) in many people, particularly those prone to allergies, and may resemble exposure to urushiol. They are microscopically barbed and may rarely cause serious medical complications if they are transferred from the hands to the eyes, but in over 350 documented cases, most were asymptomatic within 24 hours, and none involved anaphylaxis.
The later-instar caterpillars are seen between July to October. They feed in groups of about 100 or so in the early instars, skeletonizing leaves. Older larvae are solitary. They grow up to 4.5 centimeters long before pupating. Larvae primarily feed on hickory, pecan, and walnuts, but will also eat ash, elm, oak, willow, and other plants. They may occasionally cause local defoliation of nut trees, but high densities do not last long enough to cause significant damage.


The cocoon is loose and has setae woven into it. It overwinters in the leaf litter.


The adult moth flies in May and June. The forewings are yellowish-brown marked with white splotches, reminiscent of stained glass. The hindwings are mostly white. The body is hairy and pale brown.


Lophocampa maculata, the spotted tussock moth, mottled tiger or spotted halisidota, is a moth of the family Erebidae and the tribe Arctiini, the tiger moths. The species was first described by Thaddeus William Harris in 1841. It is found across Canada, the western parts of the United States, south in the Appalachians to South Carolina and Kentucky.
The wingspan is 35–45 mm. The moth flies from May to July; the larvae remain from July to September. There is one generation per year. The larvae go through five instars; the final instar is black at the ends, with a yellow or orange middle section, which in some populations has black spots.
The larvae feed on the leaves of poplar and willow, but also feed on alder, basswood, birch, maple and oak.
It is a tiger moth but is commonly referred to as a "tussock moth" for the tufts of hair on the caterpillar. According to Wiktionary, a tussock is a tuft or clump of green grass or similar verdure, forming a small hillock.


The African grey hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus) is a member of the hornbill family of mainly tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in much of sub-Saharan Africa and into Arabia. The African grey hornbill has escaped or been deliberately released into Florida, USA, but there is no evidence that the population is breeding and may only persist due to continuing releases or escapes.


In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the African grey hornbill in the fourth volume of his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name Le calao à bec noir du Sénégal and the Latin name Hydrocorax Senegalensis Melanorynchos. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson in his Ornithologie. Linnaeus included a terse description of the African grey hornbill, placed it with the other hornbills in the genus Buceros and coined the binomial name Buceros nasutus.
The African grey hornbill is now placed in the genus Lophoceros that was introduced in 1833 by two German naturalists, Wilhelm Hemprich and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. This genus was resurrected in 2013 to contain a group of hornbills that had previously been placed in the genus Tockus. The genus name Lophoceros combines the Ancient Greek lophos meaning "crest" with kerōs meaning "horn". The specific epithet nasutus is from Latin and means "large-nosed".
Two subspecies are recognised:
L. n. nasutus (Linnaeus, 1766) — Senegal and Gambia to Ethiopia, central Kenya and southwest Arabia
L. n. epirhinus (Sundevall, 1850) — south Uganda and south Kenya to north South Africa


At 45–51 cm (18–20 in) in length, the African grey hornbill is a large bird, although it is one of the smaller hornbills. Its plumage is grey and brown, with the head, flight feathers and long tail being of a darker shade. There is a white line down each side of the crown and another down the back which is only visible in flight. Their long curved bills feature a small casque along the upper culmen, which is more prominent in males than females. A dark upper mandible with creamy-yellow mark or horizontal stripe is diagnostic of males, whereas females have tricoloured, red-tipped mandibles. The plumage of the male and female is similar. That of juveniles doesn't differ much from adults, but their bills are initially uniformly blackish. The flight is undulating. The similarly sized red-billed hornbills occur in similar savannah habitats but have pied plumage.
This conspicuous bird advertises its presence with a piping pee-o pee-o pee-o call.


African grey hornbill is widespread over much of sub-Saharan Africa. It prefers open woodland and savannah.


The African grey hornbill is omnivorous, taking insects, fruit and reptiles. It feeds mainly in trees.