Leycesteria is a genus of flowering plants in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, native to temperate Asia in the Himalaya and southwestern China. It contains six or seven species of shrubs with short-lived stems with soft wood, growing to 1-2.5 m tall. One species, Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan honeysuckle or flowering nutmeg), is a popular garden shrub in Britain. Leycesteria was named for William Leycester, a horticulturist in Bengal in about 1820.