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Buddleia officinalis Maxim.

Modern name

Buddleja officinalis Maxim.

A deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub up to 9 ft high; young shoots at first indistinctly four-angled, clothed with a dense grey wool. Leaves narrowly lance-shaped, tapered towards both ends, but more gradually to the long fine point, mostly entire; 212 to 6 in. long, 12 to 2 in. wide; dull dark green and slightly downy above, clothed with pale grey wool beneath; stalk 13 in. or less long. Flowers fragrant, produced in a terminal panicle 3 to 12 in. long, 212 in. wide, composed of short-stalked racemes or cymes. Each flower is 38 in. wide, pale lilac with a yellow eye; corolla four-lobed, the slender tube 13 in. long, hairy at the throat and downy outside. Calyx small, woolly, with short teeth. Bot. Mag., t. 8401.

Native of Hupeh and Szechwan, China; named by Maximowicz in 1880, introduced to cultivation by Wilson in 1908. At Kew it has to be grown in pots and given greenhouse treatment from October onwards, as it is valuable in flowering for three months in midwinter. Hardy in Cornwall and similar mild localities, where it should be welcome on account of the season at which its delicate lilac, fragrant blossoms open. It is closely allied to B. heliophila, but in that species the leaves are almost sessile and the corollas up to 12 in. long.


Genus

Buddleia

Other species in the genus