Butterfly bush
Buddleja davidii
While it provides abundant nectar for adult butterflies, its leaves cannot feed their caterpillars, meaning it can crowd out the native host plants they need to survive.
- Scientific name
- Buddleja davidii
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Lamiales › Scrophulariaceae › Buddleja
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- increasing
- Biome
- urban
- Habitat
- Disturbed soils, railway lines, urban ruins, riparian zones, and forest edges.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (Photosynthesis)
- Range
- China (native), North America (introduced), Europe (introduced), Australia (introduced)
- Size
- 2-5 meters in height
- Lifespan
- 15-30 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- No major threats; classified as an aggressive invasive species in many regions outside its native range.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless to touch, but the dense blooms attract numerous stinging insects like bees and wasps. Maintain a gentle distance to avoid disturbing feeding pollinators. The plant is mildly toxic if ingested; do not consume leaves or flowers. If stung by an associated insect, scrape the stinger away and wash the area.
Buddleja davidii (spelling variant Buddleia davidii ), also called summer lilac , butterfly-bush , or orange eye , is a species of flowering plant in the family Scrophulariaceae, native to Sichuan and Hubei provinces in central China, and also Japan. It is widely used as an ornamental plant, and many named varieties are in cultivation. B. davidii is named after the French missionary and explorer in China, Father Armand David, who was the first European to report the shrub. It...
Photo: Weston Siegenthaler, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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