Native to Eurasia, widely cultivated and naturalized along roadsides and railroads; thickets, shores, and along rivers; borders of forests and invading them; fields and disturbed places. Collected out of cultivation in Michigan as early as the 1890’s (1891, Washtenaw Co.; 1897, St. Clair Co.).

This species hybridizes freely with its relatives, in our area, particularly with L. morrowii. Plants with glabrous inflorescence and undersides of leaves, except at most for a very few scattered hairs (other than cilia, which are rarely present on leaf margins) are referred to L. tatarica, which also rarely may have a few glands on the margins of the tiny, often nearly orbicular bracteoles. The distinction from L. ×bella is presumably obscured by backcrossing. Lonicera ×bella also has short bracteoles at most half as long as the ovaries at anthesis and the pubescence of leaves and branchlets is less dense than in L. morrowii, which has the bracteoles more than half as long as the ovaries, often nearly or quite as long and tending to be oblong. The branches and undersides of the leaves in L. morrowii are rather densely pubescent, but the distinction from L. ×bella is sometimes obscure.

The corolla is deep to pale pink or white, not tending to turn yellow with age.

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