Found this little plant wrapped around a Big Leaf Maple seedling in Federation Forest State Park, WA.
I wonder if this may be Lonicera ciliosa though Lonicera hispidula is another possibility . . . native honeysuckles.
I thought Lonicera ciliosa because it doesn't look quite look like the L. hispidula I find germinating all over the place in my garden . . . but I can't put my finger on why you seem convinced it's L. ciliosa . . . do you mind explaining?
It seems it's ciliosa. The Pacific Biodiversity Institute has a plant list for the park and hispidula is not on it. According to Pojar, L. hispidula is crawling rather than climbing. The leaves I've seen on L. hispidula seem to be a slightly different shape, a little more oblong and hairier (see image). I had not actually seen L. ciliosa before this and never would have guessed it. Thank you so much!
L. hispidula produces a percentage of leaves with pairs of small leaflike parts where the stalks of the leaves meet the main stems. Any plant of much size being deemed that species should probably have these in order to fit the bill. Otherwise my personal experience is that it generally produces leaves of a smaller order than L. ciliosa and tends to be a feature of sites near salt water, often in association with plants forming a dry soil coastal vegetation such as Douglas fir, ocean spray and salal. Camano Island State Park for instance, where I have seen it quite high up coniferous trees in the past. With there being a general pattern of orange honeysuckle being a woodland species, growing where at least a significant component of deciduous trees is present and hairy honeysuckle being an evergreen forest species.
Thank you very much for the additional information. I've never seen young L. ciliosa although both it and L. hispidula grow in this area. I wonder if L. ciliosa is prone to strangling trees like L. hispidula when it does climb.
