After the Reverend Adam Buddle (1660/1662-1715), an English botanist, this genus was originally in the Logania family, Loganiaceae, but has been placed by Jepson in a family of its own, the Buddlejaceae
Species
davidii
For Armand David, French missionary and explorer in China who first reported the shrub
Butterfly bush is native to the Sichuan and Hubei provinces in central China,
and has become a popular ornamental plant in North America. Butterflies find it
irresistable. It has become naturalized in North America.
Plants: This shrub can reach 6-13′ (1.8-4 m) in height, and
can reach 15′ (4.6 m) around. It has arching stems.
Leaves: Opposite, lanceolate, gray-green, finely toothed, 2½-8″ (7-20 cm) long. Young
leaves have fine hairs beneath.
Flowers: Spectacular roughly conical panicles at branch
tips are up to 8-18″ (20-45 cm) in length, with numerous tiny purple tubular flowers with orange centers.
(Other color combinations have been cultivated as well, including lilac, dark purple, pinks, yellows, whites,
reds, and almost black.) They appear from June to September.
Fruits: Each flower becomes a 2-valued seed capsule containing
about 50 seeds.