A partially evergreen, or, in hard winters, deciduous shrub 15 ft high in the open, still more on walls and in favoured places; of rather open, gaunt habit; stems angular, covered with a tawny, loose felt. Leaves lance-shaped, ordinarily 5 to 8 in. long, about one-fourth as wide (occasionally considerably larger), tapered at both ends, but more gradually towards the point; round-toothed, dark green and wrinkled but not downy above, covered beneath with a tawny felt; stalk 1⁄4 in. or less long. Flowers fragrant, bright yellow, produced in June in balls 3⁄4 in. diameter, eight or ten of these globose heads are arranged in a terminal panicle in opposite pairs, each on a stalk 1 to 11⁄2 in. long; the whole panicle 6 to 8 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 174.
Native of Chile and Peru; introduced by the firm of Kennedy and Lee in 1774. This singularly handsome and striking shrub is hardy at Kew; only in exceptionally severe winters does it suffer injury. It is distinct among cultivated buddleias in the yellow of its flowers and their arrangement in globular heads.