Buddleja loricata

Buddleja loricata
	Buddleja loricata flowers,
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Buddlejaceae
Genus:	Buddleja
Species:	B. loricata
Binomial name
	Buddleja loricata; Leeuwenb.
Synonyms
	Chilianthus corrugatus Benth. ; Buddleja corrugata(Benth.) Phillips; Nuxia corrugata Benth. ;

Last updated March 17, 2019

Buddleja loricata is a hardy evergreen shrub endemic to South Africa and Mozambique, where it grows on mountain slopes at elevations above 1,800 m. The shrub has only recently been introduced to cultivation in Europe.^[1]

In botany, an evergreen is a plant that has leaves throughout the year that are always green. This is true even if the plant retains its foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season. There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs. Evergreens include:

A shrub or bush is a small- to medium-sized woody plant. Unlike herbs, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height, and are usually under 6 m (20 ft) tall. Plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m (6.6 ft) tall, such as lavender, periwinkle and most small garden varieties of rose, are often termed "subshrubs".

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry.

Description

B. loricata makes a large, bushy shrub < 4 m in height. The leaves are opposite, narrowly oblong - elliptic, < 9 cm long by 2 cm wide, the wrinkled upper surfaces dark green. The honey-scented flowers are small, pale cream with a dull orange throat, borne in clustered terminal heads from mid - autumn to winter.^[1]

Cultivation

B. loricata is hardy in the UK, and considered easy to grow, being tolerant of heat, drought, and cold, and requiring very little pruning to maintain shape. The shrub features in the NCCPG National Collection of Buddleja held by the Longstock Park Nursery, near Stockbridge, England. Hardiness: USDA zones 7–9.^[1]

Buddleja, or Buddleia, commonly known as the butterfly bush, is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The generic name bestowed by Linnaeus posthumously honoured the Reverend Adam Buddle (1662–1715), an English botanist and rector, at the suggestion of Dr. William Houstoun. Houstoun sent the first plants to become known to science as buddleja to England from the Caribbean about 15 years after Buddle's death.

Longstock Park is in the civil parish of Longstock in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, and forms part of the Leckford Estate, wholly owned by the John Lewis Partnership. Formerly Longstock Manor, of medieval origins, the park was purchased by Sir Joshua East in 1849. On his death, the park passed to his sons Alfred and Arthur. In 1914, the park became the home of the Beddington family until 1945, when it was sold to John Spedan Lewis, founder of the John Lewis Partnership. Lewis lived at Longstock House throughout his retirement until his death in 1963, after which the house became a retreat for the company's executives. The park is today home to a retail horticultural emporium, the Longstock Park Nursery, and also accommodates an arboretum and water gardens.

Stockbridge is a small town and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. It is one of the smallest towns in the United Kingdom with a population of 592 as of the 2011 census. It sits astride the River Test and at the foot of Stockbridge Down.

Hybrids

The shrub was crossed with Buddleja crispa by Peter Moore, Longstock Park Nursery, to create the hybrid cultivar Silver Anniversary

Buddleja crispa, sometimes called the Himalayan butterfly bush, is native to Afghanistan, Bhutan, North India, Nepal, Pakistan and China, where it grows on dry river beds, slopes with boulders, exposed cliffs, and in thickets, at elevations of 1400–4300 m. Named by Bentham in 1835, B. crispa was introduced to cultivation in 1850, and came to be considered one of the more attractive species within the genus; it ranked 8th out of 57 species and cultivars in a public poll organized by the Center for Applied Nursery Research (CANR) at the University of Georgia, USA.. In the UK, B. crispa was accorded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit in 1961. However, the species is not entirely cold-hardy, and thus its popularity is not as ubiquitous as it might otherwise be.

Hybrid (biology) offspring of cross-species reproduction

In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents, but can show hybrid vigour, sometimes growing larger or taller than either parent. The concept of a hybrid is interpreted differently in animal and plant breeding, where there is interest in the individual parentage. In genetics, attention is focused on the numbers of chromosomes. In taxonomy, a key question is how closely related the parent species are.

Cultivar plant or grouping of plants selected for desirable characteristics

The term cultivar most commonly refers to an assemblage of plants selected for desirable characters that are maintained during propagation. More generally, cultivar refers to the most basic classification category of cultivated plants in the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). Most cultivars arose in cultivation, but a few are special selections from the wild.

Related Research Articles

Buddleja saligna, the false, or bastard, olive, is almost endemic to South Africa where it has a wide distribution. It occurs most often in ravines and against outcrops, and is distributed from coastal elevations to the central plateau at elevations of < 2000 m. The species was first described and named by Willdenow in 1809.

Buddleja salviifolia, common names sage bush and sagewood, is endemic to much of southern and eastern Africa, from Kenya and Angola south, where it grows on rocky hillsides, along forest margins and watercourses. The species was described and named by Lamarck in 1792.

Buddleja sterniana was a species sunk as Buddleja crispa by Leeuwenberg in 1979, and treated as such in the subsequent Flora of China. however, the plant remains widely known by its former epithet in horticulture.

Buddleja delavayi is a Chinese species discovered by Forrest in the Tali Range above Dali, Yunnan, in 1910; it is also found in Xizang (Tibet). The species was named for l'Abbé Delavay, the French missionary and plant collector, by Gagnepain in 1912. The shrub is of interest to the botanist because of its unique resting buds and the different types of inflorescence produced through the year.

Buddleja albiflora is a deciduous shrub native to the mountains of central China, where it grows on shrub-clad slopes at altitudes of between 1,000 and 2,000 m. Named rather carelessly by Hemsley, the species was discovered by Henry, and introduced to western cultivation by Wilson in 1900.

Buddleja auriculata is an evergreen shrub endemic to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa, growing in montane fields and thickets at elevations of 600–2,000 m. First collected by W. J. Burchell in 1813, and named by Bentham, the date of its introduction to western cultivation is not known, however it was accorded the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit in 1923.

Buddleja agathosma is endemic to western Yunnan, China. Originally identified as B. agathosma by Ludwig Diels, it was sunk as Buddleja crispa by Leeuwenberg in 1979, and treated as such in the subsequent Flora of China published in 1996. However, the shrub remains widely known by its former epithet in horticulture.

Buddleja glomerata is a shrub endemic to the mountains of the Karoo desert in South Africa, where it grows among boulders on dry hillsides. The species was first described and named by Heinrich Wendland in 1825. The shrub has a number of common names locally, the most popular being 'Karoo Sagewood'.

Buddleja asiatica is a somewhat tender deciduous shrub native to a vast area of the East Indies, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, New Guinea, and the Philippines, growing in open woodland at elevations < 2,800 m either as understorey scrub, or as a small tree. First described by Loureiro in 1790, B. asiatica was introduced to the UK in 1874, and accorded the RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1993. It is highly invasive in Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Buddleja coriacea is a variable species endemic to the high Andes from the Cordillera Blanca in Peru to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. It grows on dry to semi-humid rocky soils at elevations of 3,000–4,350 m, where temperatures range from -3° to 15° C. and the winds are both strong and persistent. The species was first named and described by Rémy in 1847.

Buddleja cordata is endemic to Mexico, growing along forest edges and water courses at elevations of 1500–3000 m; it has also naturalized in parts of Ethiopia. The species was first described and named by Kunth in 1818.

Buddleja crotonoides is a shrub with a wide distribution, from California south to Nicaragua. The shrub grows at elevations of 2,000–2,500 m in oak woods and on scree in association with Arbutus xalapiensis, Pinus sp., and Crataegus mexicana. B. crotonoides was first named and described by Gray in 1847.

Buddleja forrestii is a deciduous shrub or small tree widely distributed from India to western China. First described by Diels in 1912, he named the species for plant hunter George Forrest, who discovered the plant in Yunnan in 1904 and introduced it to Western cultivation.

Buddleja japonica is a deciduous shrub native to Honshu and Shikoku, Japan, where it grows on mountain slopes amid scrub. The shrub was named and described by Hemsley in 1889, and introduced to Western cultivation in 1896.

Buddleja nivea is a vigorous shrub endemic to western China, evergreen in the wild, but deciduous in cultivation in the UK. The plant was discovered by Wilson in the Yangtze basin at altitudes of 700 – 3,600 m. Introduced to cultivation in 1901, it was named by Duthie in 1905. Several plants similar to the species but originally treated as species and varieties in their own right have now been sunk as B. nivea.

Buddleja stenostachya is a deciduous shrub native to Szechuan province, China. The species was discovered and introduced to cultivation by Wilson in 1908, and named by him and Rehder in 1913. There remains some contention over its taxonomy; it was sunk under B. nivea by Leeuwenberg; while another erroneously sank it as a variety of Buddleja crispa.

Buddleja myriantha is a species endemic to upper Burma and western China, including Tibet, where it grows along forest edges, thickets and streams at altitudes of 2,000 – 3,200 m. The species was first described and named by Diels in 1912.

Buddleja davidii 'Autumn Beauty' is a British cultivar distinguished solely by its comparatively late flowering, from August through to October. The shrub was cloned from a plant grown from seed sent from Beijing to Paignton Zoo, one of the four NCCPG national buddleja collection holders. The atypical phenology of the shrub has cast doubt on its taxonomy as a variety or form of Buddleja davidii, however its flowers, foliage and structure are all very similar to the species.

Buddleja × lewisiana 'Margaret Pike' is a cultivar of the hybrid Buddleja madagascariensis × Buddleja asiatica raised by A V Pike at Hever Castle, England, in 1951. The shrub was accorded the Award of Merit (AM) by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1953, followed by the First Class Certificate (FCC) in 1954.

Buddleja macrostachya is a large deciduous shrub or small tree with a vast distribution, from Xizang (Tibet) through western China, Bhutan, Sikkim, northern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), to Thailand and Vietnam, growing in scrub on mountain slopes to an altitude of 3,200 m, and along rivers in forests. The species was named and described by Wallich ex Bentham in 1835.

References

1 2 3 Stuart, D. D. (2006). Buddlejas. RHS Plant Collector Guide. Timber Press, Oregon. ISBN 978-0-88192-688-0

Leeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1979) The Loganiaceae of Africa XVIII Buddleja L. II, Revision of the African & Asiatic species. H. Veenman & Zonen B. V. Nederland.