Lonicera praeflorens var. japonica ("Hayazakihyotanboku")

Japanese name: ハヤザキヒョウタンボク （早咲瓢箪木）
Scientific name: Lonicera praeflorens var. japonica

[Overview]
A deciduous shrub about 2 m tall, found in places such as limestone areas in the mountains.
The branches are round and hairless.
Leaves are simple and opposite, 2.5–6 cm long and 1.5–4 cm wide, ovate, slightly wrinkled on the upper surface, and densely covered with soft hairs on both sides.
The leaf tip is very shortly pointed.
The leaf margins are entire.
The leaf stalks are short and have many soft hairs.
The flowers open before the leaves appear.
The flowers are borne in pairs in the leaf axils at the branch tips, with bracts at the base.
The bracts are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.3–0.9 cm long, with hairs on the margins.
The bractlets are inconspicuous.
The flowers are 1–1.5 cm across and white, sometimes tinged with pale purple.
The corolla is deeply 5-lobed, the lobes are oblong-elliptic, and the corolla tube is short.
There are 5 stamens, which project far out of the corolla tube together with the style.
The flower stalks are hairless and short at flowering, but extend to 0.5–1.2 cm long at the fruiting stage.
The fruit is a spherical berry 0.6–1 cm across, ripening red.

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