Orange eye butterflybush

Buddleja davidii is a vigorous shrub with an arching habit, growing to 5 m (16 ft) in height. The pale brown bark becomes deeply fissured with age. The branches are quadrangular in section, the younger shoots covered in a dense indumentum. The opposite lanceolate leaves are 7–13 cm long, tomentose beneath when young. The honey-scented lilac to purple inflorescences are terminal panicles, < 20 cm long. Flowers are perfect (having both male and female parts), hence are hermaphrodite rather than monoecious (separate male and female flowers on the same plant) as is often incorrectly stated. Ploidy 2n = 76 (tetraploid). Buddleja davidii, after LeeuwenbergEdit In his 1979 revision of the taxonomy of the African and Asiatic species of Buddleja, the Dutch botanist Anthonius Leeuwenberg sank the six varieties of the species as synonyms of the type, considering them to be within the natural variation of a species, and unworthy of varietal recognition. It was Leeuwenberg's taxonomy which was adopted in the Flora of China published in 1996. However, as the distinctions of the former varieties are still widely recognized in horticulture, they are treated separately here: Buddleja davidii var. alba Buddleja davidii var. magnifica Buddleja davidii var. nanhoensis Buddleja davidii var. superba Buddleja davidii var. veitchiana Buddleja davidii var. wilsonii