A deciduous shrub growing to 6 metres (20 ft) tall with hollow twigs, the leaves are opposite, oval, 4–10 centimetres (1+1⁄2–4 in) long with the last pair on each twig merged to form a disk.

The flowers are orange-yellow, 2–4 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) long, with five lobes and trumpet shaped; they are produced in whorls above the disk-leaf on the ends of shoots.

The fruit is a translucent orange-red berry less than 1 cm (3⁄8 in) diameter.

[5] The orange honeysuckle was used as cold medicine, a contraceptive, a sedative and even as a tuberculosis remedy.

[6] The species was one of the many florae recorded during Lewis and Clark's expeditions beginning in 1804.