Leycesteria formosa

Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan Honeysuckle, Flowering Nutmeg, Himalaya Nutmeg or Pheasant Berry) is a deciduous shrub in the family Caprifoliaceae

Caprifoliaceae

The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade consisting of about 800 dicotyledonous flowering plants, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution; centres of diversity are found in eastern North America and eastern Asia, while they are absent in tropical and southern Africa.They are mostly...

, native to the Himalaya and southwestern China

China

China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....

.


It has soft, hollow, upright green stems 1-2 m tall, which only last for 2-5 years before collapsing and being replaced by new stems from the roots. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin. There is continued debate about whether the flatness of leaves evolved to expose the chloroplasts to more light or to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. In...

 are opposite, dark green, 6-18 cm long and 4-9 cm broad, with an entire or wavy margin.

Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan Honeysuckle, Flowering Nutmeg, Himalaya Nutmeg or Pheasant Berry) is a deciduous shrub in the family Caprifoliaceae

Caprifoliaceae

The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade consisting of about 800 dicotyledonous flowering plants, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution; centres of diversity are found in eastern North America and eastern Asia, while they are absent in tropical and southern Africa.They are mostly...

, native to the Himalaya and southwestern China

China

China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....

.


It has soft, hollow, upright green stems 1-2 m tall, which only last for 2-5 years before collapsing and being replaced by new stems from the roots. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin. There is continued debate about whether the flatness of leaves evolved to expose the chloroplasts to more light or to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. In...

 are opposite, dark green, 6-18 cm long and 4-9 cm broad, with an entire or wavy margin. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...

s are produced on 5-10 cm long pendulous raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s; each flower is small, white, subtended by a purple bract

Bract

In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale...

. The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds, and the presence of seeds indicates that a structure is most likely a fruit, though not all seeds come from...

 is a soft purple-black berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a simple fruit produced from a single ovary, such as a grape or a tomato. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. The flowers of these plants have a superior ovary formed by the fusion of...

 1 cm diameter, eaten by bird

Bird

Birds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...

s which disperse the seeds.

Leycesteria formosa was popularly used in Victorian shrubberies.

It is seldom found in contemporary British gardens, though attempts have been made in recent years to popularise the species in Britain again with new cultivated varieties appearing in most garden centres.

It is considered a weed in New Zealand