Black Twinberry

April 24, 2021January 11, 2024
Flora and Fauna, Native to BC
by dhir

All photos taken by the author. Last updated April 24, 2021.

The common name black twinberry comes from the appearance of the fruits (black coloured berries attached in pairs) not the flowers (yellow, also in pairs).

I first became familiar with this plant when on a walk with a class of Life Sciences 11 students. They had been tasked with each finding a different plant species to identify, photograph, and write about. One student noticed these tubular pairs of yellow flowers right next to the walking path and we set about trying to identify the plant by looking through native species plant books. Lonicera involucrata is named after German botanist Adam Lonitzer and the prominent bracts at the base of the flowers and fruit called an involucre. Interestingly, these bracts turn bright red when the berries form, perhaps making it easier for birds to find the berries (click here for pics of the berries)?

Black twinberry is a shrub up to 3 metres tall, flowering from April until August with berries from July through September. The leaves and flowers appear at the same time. At the top of the photo below you can see some of last year’s berries, shiny and round when fresh, now dried and shrivelled but still on the plant.

This plant, growing in a schoolyard, was 2-3 metres tall and looked very happy growing in full sun. The bright green, hairy, pointed elliptical leaves grow opposite each other in pairs, offset by 90 degrees from the pairs above and below.

The mature bark is light brown, rough, and peeling off in shreds. This shrub has many stems originating from near the ground.

The flowers on a single plant bloom in succession over many months. Here you can see some blooming flowers below flower buds and you can also see the hairs on the leaves.

A photo of the entire black twinberry plant with some other plants growing near it. This plant has been pruned over the years.

Black twinberry belongs to the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae). Other native species on the Pacific coast in this genus include L. utahensis (red twinberry), L. caerulea (sweetberry honeysuckle), L. conjugialis (purpleflower honeysuckle), L. ciliosa (climbing honeysuckle), and L. hispidula (pink honeysuckle). When flowering or with fruit, you will not confuse black twinberry with other honeysuckle plants.

Indigenous people did not tend to eat these berries. Some believed that if you ate them you would lose your voice. The berries are eaten by birds and bears and so some aboriginal groups gave them names that translate to bear berries, grizzly berries, crow berries, raven’s berries, or robin’s berries. Some groups used the juice from the berries as dye for baskets or hair colouring.

So head outside this week, and over the next few months, to look for these noticeable pairs of yellow tubular flowers and then the shiny black pairs of berries with red involucres. Look, but do not eat! NEVER CONSUME ANY WILD PLANT OR FUNGUS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% CERTAIN OF ITS IDENTITY AND PREPARATION.

Books I read:

“Black Twinberry.” Plant Technology of First Peoples in British Columbia, by Nancy J. Turner, Royal British Columbia Museum, 2019, p. 162.

“Black twinberry.” The Flora and Fauna of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, by Collin Varner, Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., 2018, p. 126.

“Lonicera species.” Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest Third Edition, by Arthur R. Kruckeberg and Linda Chalker-Scott, Greystone Books, 2019, pp. 142-143.

“Twinflower Honeysuckle.” Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples, by Nancy J. Turner, Royal British Columbia Museum, 2017, pp. 142.

“Twinflower Honeysuckle.” Food Plants of Interior First Peoples, by Nancy J. Turner, Royal British Columbia Museum, 2017, pp. 184.