Butterfly-bushes
What are they?
Well-known by anyone with an interest in wildlife gardening, the butterfly-bushes are members of a group of woody shrubs found primarily in eastern asia, but also in Africa and the Americas. These plants fall within a group that have troubled plant taxonomists for a long time and have been bounced in and out of the Scrophulariaceae, the Loganiaceae or their own family, the Buddlejaceae (note that, at some point, the spelling was changed from Buddleia to Buddleja). The plants are largely distinguished by their small, tubular flowers arranged in tight clusters and by their habit of not forming overwintering buds, producing instead clusters of small leaves that elongate into new growths in the spring.
Where are they found?
These are introduced plants, grown as garden ornamentals. As such, they are most likely to be found as garden escapes on rough ground and roadsides, especially in urban areas. Common Butterfly-bush is hugely popular for its attraction to nectaring butterflies and has become well established as a coloniser of abandoned or decaying land in urban areas and frequently grows wherever its wind-dispersed seed finds a niche. This includes walls and cracks in paves areas.
Identification
Common Butterfly-bush is well-known and distinctive and needs little introduction. The other species show similar traits in their flowers, but differ in the colour and arrangement of the flowers and often in the appearance of their leaves.
Common Butterfly-bush Buddleja davidii
Introduced from Asia as a garden ornamental. Readily spreads by seed and now widely established in urban areas as a coloniser of rough and abandoned land. Flowers July to September. A many-branched shrub to 6m tall. Flowers may come in a variety of shades of blue-purple to red-purple, pink and white. Most have flowers in a dense, tapered spike, but some cultivars bear more open, branched flower clusters.
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Weyer's Butterfly-bush Buddleja x weyeriana
A hybrid of cultivated origin between Common and Orange-ball Butterfly-bushes. Once recorded in the wider countryside in Suffolk, but may occur sporadically as a garden escape. Flowers July to August. A many-branched shrub to 6m tall. Very similar in its leaves and stems to Common Butterfly-bush and probably not distinguishable from it except by its flowers (though leaves have a tendency to be a little more deeply veined). The flowers are typically a mixture of the parents, being arranged in elongate racemes that are discreetly separated into rounded clusters. Flowers cream-orange to yellow-orange, often with a purplish wash to them in bud.
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Orange Butterfly-bush Buddleja globosa
Introduced as a garden ornamental from South America. Occurs sporadically as a garden escape with some plants being well-established and long-lived. Flowers May to June. A many-branched shrub to 5m tall. The leaves are deeply veined, giving them a 'crinkled' look and are usually a deeper, darker green than those of Common Butterfly-bush.
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Alternate-leaved Butterfly-bush Buddleja alternifolia
Introduced as a garden ornamental from China. Occurs sporadically as a rare garden escape with some plants being well-established and long-lived. Flowers July to September. A many-branched shrub to 3m tall, forming tangles of long, arching to pendulous branches. Leaves much smaller than those of other butterfly-bushes, somewhat resembling those of European Privet and flowers arranged in rounded clusters along the branches.
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