Is this honeysuckle?

This plant flowers in January and is still flowering in Tennessee. The red berries look like gummy bears candy. Note the green berries before red that actually look like berries. Note the wood grained stalk. This plant draws vast numbers of honey bees in the winter on days above freezing. It suppress all other plant life on the forest floor below it, often you can see just bare black dirt, leaves don't turn brown, just lighten in green to light green. When cut the stump sprouts comes with a soft plant and leaf texture. I have researched a lot and joined your group for help. I think this an asian bush honeysuckle but have seen no photos to match mine. Please reply if you know.

 

can't make out the flower. the leaves seem right for honeysuckle though.

if it is and it's the asian variety, it's invasive and you'll want to get rid of it. native varieties are not invasive so it would be okay to leave.

 

Thanks for your reply. I am going to get better pictures and see if I can post them to this same thread. I had 4 and all had some part out of focus.

 

Lonicera fragrantissima.

 

Thank you Ron B. Your answer looks like it from photos I found by using your answer via google search. I did take new pictures to try and get better lighting and resovle my camera's focus problem. I am attaching one from a cutting I brought inside and one from new growth from a cut down stump. I am not seeing any purple in the stalks but will look closer. Also will look for hollow stalks as stated by someone from another website.

 

When checking suggested identifications read descriptions, do not rely on pictures only.

 

To Ron B.,

Again, let me say thanks to you for giving me the name to search for. I do read all descriptions as well as look at the pictures. As I have read and you probably know, absolute identification is often difficult. What I was saying was that some of the descriptions actually said purple stems and that may be true for a variety that that person or website has. Just like others talk about berries in the fall, not spring/winter.

Since I now know that it is invasive and practically covering my forrest floor along with privit, I will be removing a lot of it. I will leave some for the winter flower and bee activity and green leaf color. This land has been a neglected for quite some time and was part of an larger farm back in the 1950s. I will manage what I leave and allow other things to grow too.

 

Things like pigmenting of stems can vary within the same bush, as well as from one individual to another within the same species.