I find this shrub all over our neighborhood and all over wisconsin. I have one in the backyard it is 4ft tall (but I have seen them 8ft or taller in the woods) it looks almost identical to shepherdia in the leaf structure but the berries are in the wrong place. (most around here consider them a weed albeit decorative) I have taken a picture, as you can see simple opposing smooth dark gree leaves with 2 bright red berries opposing sides also. The berries smell somewhat like a tomato and have small seeds inside. The stems are small but "trunk" and other parts are woody. Any ideas, I have been told its shepherdia, others say holly, I have no idea, I always thought shepherdia had the berries on the stem. On a side note there are also some nearly identical plants in the woods with orange berries. I have always been curious about wild edible and medicianal berries and if this really was shepherdia I might be able to get some use out of this extra large woody weed. :) Thank You Ryan
That would make sense, a nice looking shrub good for admiring I guess. These things seem to be all over this area right by the blackberry brush. One thing that seems wrong still is the fact that these plants never have really pretty flowers, I always thought honeysuckle flowered for a while, these seem to develope berries VERY early in the year which seems odd. The flowers while they last are small and white usually right after the snow breaks.
Possibly Lonicera × bella, from Invasive Plants of Wisconsin (although that doesn't really make sense based off of your description of the flowers). You might be interested to read the comments discussion from this Botany Photo of the Day entry on Lonicera 'Mandarin' which talks about the invasiveness of some honeysuckles.
