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I tested whether the invasive shrub Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle) competes with tree seedlings for water by either of two mechanisms: 1) intercepting rainwater during light rain events; (2) absorbing large amounts of water through its fine roots. To test the two hypothesized mechanisms I selected plots near large L. maackii shrubs and control plots away from any large L. maackii shrubs in the forest understory. Within each plot I placed a trenched and an untrenched subplot. I measured precipitation above and below L. maackii canopies, and soil water content and stomatal conductance of naturally-occurring Acer saccharum and Carya sp. seedlings in each trenched and untrenched subplot. The results somewhat supported the hypothesis that L. maackii competes with tree seedlings by interception, but were inconclusive regarding the hypothesis of competition by water uptake. A novel dataset shows that L. maackii fine roots are disproportionately common in shallow soil.