In a message dated 9/28/99 1:20:42 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<<Some will argue that bees cannot get nectar from honeysuckle
because of the flower.  This is true for the vine type, but not the
bush/shrub variety.>>

The Brooklyn (NY) Botanic Garden publishes handbooks quarterly on topics of
botanic and ecological interest. Handbook #149 is titled "Invasive Plants:
Weeds of the Global Garden." Seems like the invasives often make good honey
plants. Invasives include Black Locust (native in the Eastern US, invasive in
areas beyond that range), bamboo (from India and China); the bush honeysuckle
varieties (amur from China, Korea and Japan; Morrow from Japan; Tartarian
from Turkey and soutern Russia) and, or course, purple loosestrife (Eurasia
native).
I recommend this book  since so many of these invasives seem to make an
unusual contribution to beekeepers' supers.

James Luken, with the dept. of biological sciences at Northern Kentucky
University wrote this about bush honeysuckle:
"Bush honeysuckles colonize a variety of habitats, from open (old fields,
marshes, roadsides) to shaded (upland and lowland forests), but are most
successful in full sun. Generally, disturbed urban forests are more readily
invaded than large intact, rural ones.
Bush honeysuckles can transform prairies into scrub. In forest preserves they
can reduce the plant diversity of the ground layer and decrease the density
of tree seedlings, with possible long-term effect on tree populations.
However, very few studies have been done to determine specifically how bush
honeysuckles interact with other species in biological communites. Clearly,
native birds feed on the fruits in winter and may use the shrubs for nesting."