Evergreen shrub or small tree. Leaves opposite, oval to elliptical. Flowers greenish yellow, tiny (2 mm) in lateral clusters with male and female borne on the same plant. Fruit small three horned capsule containing black seeds.

Very similar to Wilson's Honeysuckle and Box-leaved Honeysuckle, but quite different when in flower and fruit.

Woodland, large bushes surviving as a result of deliberate planting for landscape or amenity reasons, or for pheasant cover.  Common as a trimmed ornamental bush or low hedge (often non-flowering) cultivar in parks, gardens, churchyards and cemeteries.

Flowers April and May.

Evergreen.

Widely planted throughout Britain but rarely naturalised; native only in a small area in S England. 

Occasional as a planted bush in woodland and parkland in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 44 of the 617 tetrads.