Two Novel Blue Honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L.) Cultivars: Lanjingling and Wulan

Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L.), a member of Caprifoliaceae family, is a deciduous shrub that is also known as "Haskap " or "honeyberry. " Because of its extra-early ripening, high content of bioactive metabolites in fruit, and outstanding frost resistance of buds and flowers, blue honey-suckle has become a novel cash crop in conti-nental climate regions (Plekhanova 2000). In the 21st century, its cultivation has undergone rapid expansion, not only in eastern Europe and northern America, but also in Northeast Asia, especially in Hokkaido, Japan, and the northeastern part of China. In the past 20 years, there were no cultivars of blue honey-suckle reported in China, and most of its pro-duction relied heavily on wild collection and transplantation of local wild blue honey-suckle (L. caerulea var. edulis). However, wild blue honeysuckle has the weaknesses of easy fruit abscission, low yield, obvious bitterness, severely tart taste, and low fruit firmness (Huo et al., 2005). 'Lanjingling' [China National Plant Variety Protection (CNPVP) 20200389] and 'Wulan' (CNPVP 20200390) are the first two nationally registered blue honeysuckle cultivars developed by the Northeast Agricultural University (NEAU). 'Lanjingling' is characterized by relatively high fruit firmness, large fruit size, and negli-gible bitterness; thus, it is suitable for the fresh-fruit market. 'Wulan' is characterized by high yield, excellent flavor, and strong aroma, with great commercial value in the food, medical, and cosmetic fields.