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Buddleja asiatica
Also called Dog Tail, Asiatic Butterfly Bush
Dogtail (Buddleja asiatica) is a sweetly scented, semi-evergreen to deciduous shrub or small tree from Asia and the Pacific, grown mostly for its fragrant white flower spikes borne in late winter. It is not fully hardy and is best grown in mild climates or under glass; it is invasive in some tropical islands.
Buddleja asiatica, also known as dogtail, is a species of flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It grows 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 (record 675) in 1993. It is highly invasive in Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Buddleja asiatica is not completely hardy in the UK, but can be grown reliably against a south-facing wall in coastal areas of the south and west, where it tolerates temperatures down to around 0 °C (32 °F). A specimen is grown under glass by Longstock Park Nursery, near Stockbridge, Hampshire, one of the four NCCPG national collection holders.
Hardiness: RHS H3, USDA zones 9–10. Owing to its wide ecological range, adaptation to disturbed areas, elevation and rainfall tolerance, it readily naturalizes in tropical regions and can become invasive.
This somewhat tender deciduous shrub is native to Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, China (North-Central, South-Central and Southeast), East and West Himalaya, Hainan, India, Java, Laos, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Malaysia, the Maluku Islands, the Mariana Islands, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam. It is an introduced species in the East Aegean Islands, Hawaii, and Vanuatu.
In Nepal leaves of B. asiatica are collected as fodder for domesticated animals, and the trunk is cut for firewood. During Thangmi wedding rituals, the female relatives of the groom wear necklaces made of the white flower.
Fountain butterflybush · Buddleja cordata · Butterfly-bush · Buddleja dysophylla · Buddleja fallowiana var. alba · Buddleja fallowiana · Orange-ball-tree · Smokebush · Pole butterflybush · Squarestem butterflybush · Butterfly Bush
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Buddleja asiatica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
