Earlier this summer, I noticed a plant coming up in a pot outside. I didn't recognize it until it started putting forth lovely purple blooms, and then I knew I was the proud owner of what's commonly known as a Butterfly Bush (genus Buddleja).
When the flowers first started to appear, the little greenish-yellow butterflies ignored it. Yesterday I could see that more than a dozen purple spires had erupted and thought: I should take a photo before they're all gone.
This morning I was rewarded with a glorious sight: At least fifteen Monarch butterflies had descended upon the heavy-laden volunteer, so I quickly went inside to grab the camera. Not only did I get several decent close-ups but shot a short video (albeit a shaky one) of my welcome visitors flitting from branch to branch.
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| Monarch butterflies gather for a big feast |
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Buddleja, or
Buddleia, but commonly known as the
Butterfly Bush,
[4] is a
genus of
flowering plants. The generic name bestowed by
Linnaeus posthumously honoured the Reverend
Adam Buddle (1662–1715), a
botanist and
rector in
Essex, England, at the suggestion of Dr
William Houstoun. Houstoun sent the first plants to become known to science as buddleja (
B. americana) to England from the
Caribbean about 15 years after Buddle's death.
Classification
The genus
Buddleja is now included in the
figwort family,
Scrophulariaceae;
[5] it had earlier been classified in either the
Loganiaceae or in a family of its own, the Buddlejaceae.
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| Welcome to the Buddleja Restaurant |
Description
Of the approximately 100 species nearly all are
shrubs , the largest reaching 30 m (98 ft). Both
evergreen and
deciduous species occur. The
leaves are lanceolate in most species, and arranged in opposite pairs on the stems (alternate in one species,
B. alternifolia); they range from 1–30 cm (0.39–12 in) long. The
flowers are produced in dense
panicles 10–50 cm (3.9–20 in) long; each individual flower is tubular, about 1 cm (0.39 in) long, with the
corolla divided into four spreading lobes (
petals),
about 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) across.
Flower colour varies widely, with
white, pink, red, purple, orange or yellow flowers produced by different
species and cultivars; they are rich in nectar and often strongly scented. The
fruit is a small
capsule about 1 cm (0.39 in) long and 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) diameter, containing numerous small
seeds; in a few species (previously classified in the separate genus
Nicodemia) the capsule is soft and fleshy, forming a
berry.
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| Table for one? |
Distribution
The genus is
endemic to four continents. Over 60 species are native throughout the warmer parts of the
New World from the
southern United States south to
Chile, while many other species are found in the
Old World, in
Africa, and parts of
Asia, but all are absent as natives from
Europe and
Australasia. The species are divided into three groups based on their floral type: those in the New World are mostly
dioecious (occasionally
hermaphrodite or
trioecious), while those in the Old World are exclusively hermaphrodite with
perfect flowers.
Cultivation and uses
As garden shrubs Buddlejas are essentially 20th-century plants, with the exception of
B. globosa which was introduced to Britain from southern
Chile in 1774 and disseminated from the nursery of
Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith.
[6]
Several species are popular garden plants, the species are commonly
known as 'butterfly bushes' owing to their attractiveness to
butterflies, and have become staples of the modern
butterfly garden; they are also attractive to
bees and
moths. Some species of South American
Buddleja have evolved long red flowers to attract
hummingbirds as exclusive
pollinators.
The most popular cultivated species is
Buddleja davidii from central
China, named after the French naturalist Père
Armand David. Other common garden species include the aforementioned
B. globosa, grown for its strongly
honey - scented orange globular
inflorescences, and the weeping
Buddleja alternifolia. Several interspecific
hybrids have been made, notably
B. 'Lochinch' (
B. davidii ×
B. fallowiana) and
B. × weyeriana (
B. globosa ×
B. davidii), the latter the only known cross between a South American and an Asiatic species.
Some species commonly escape from the garden.
B. davidii in particular is a great coloniser of dry open ground; in towns in the
United Kingdom, it often self-sows on waste ground or old masonry, where it grows into a dense thicket, and it is listed as an
invasive species in many areas. It is frequently seen beside
railway lines, on derelict factory sites and, in the aftermath of
the Second World War, on urban bomb sites. This earned it the popular nickname of 'the bombsite plant' among people of the war-time generation.
Popular garden cultivars include
'Royal Red' (reddish-purple flowers),
'Black Knight' (very dark purple),
'Sungold' (golden yellow), and
'Pink Delight'
(pink). In recent years, much breeding work has been undertaken to
create more compact buddlejas, most recently the production of dwarf
varieties such as
'Blue Chip' (
Lo & Behold™) and
'Buzz' which reach no more than 2–3 ft (0.61–0.91 m) tall, and are also seed sterile, an important consideration in the
USA where
B. davidii and its cultivars are banned from many states on account of their invasiveness.
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| May I bring you anything else? |
Nomenclature
The botanic name has been the source of some confusion. By modern practice of
botanical Latin, the spelling of a generic name made from 'Buddle' would be
Buddleia, but
Linnaeus in 1753 and 1754 spelled it
Buddleja. The
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature has gradually changed to incorporate stricter rules about
orthographic variants, and as of the 2006 edition requires (article 60, particularly 60.5) that Linnaeus' spelling should be followed in this case.
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I won't subject you to the video in this post (mostly because I haven't figured out how to download video content, and also I'm so close to the camera you can hear me breathing). After all, I've already bored you with too much information about Buddleja. I only hope these frenetic freeloaders will come back tomorrow!
