''Buddleja cordata'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, growing along forest edges and water courses at elevations of 1500–3000 m; it has also naturalized in parts of Ethiopia.Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. ''Flora Neotropica 81'', New York Botanical Garden, USALeeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1979) ''The Loganiaceae of Africa XVIII Buddleja L. II, Revision of the African & Asiatic species''. H. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, Nederland. The species was first described and named by

Kunth Carl Sigismund Kunth (18 June 1788 – 22 March 1850) was a German botanist. He was also known as Karl Sigismund Kunth or anglicized as Charles Sigismund Kunth. He was one of the early systematic botanists who focused on studying the plants of th ...

in 1818.''Nova Genera et Species Plantarum'', 2: 348–349, t.185. 1818.

Description

''Buddleja cordata'' is a large

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

shrub or tree < 20 m tall in the wild. The trunk, which can reach 45 cm in diameter, has a furrowed bark, brownish or blackish in colour. The ovate to narrowly elliptical leaves are opposite and paired, 4–23 cm long by 3–14 cm wide, on petioles 1–4 cm long. The terminal

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s are

paniculate In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a pa ...

, 6–30 cm long with at least two orders of branches, the lowermost subtended by leaves, the uppermost by small bracts. The small fragrant flowers are grouped into shortly pedunculate cymules, the corollas white, cream, or yellow, with a flush of orange at the throat, 1.5–2.5 long.

Ploidy Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

: ''2n'' = 76 (tetraploid). Image: Buddleja cordata, Longstock.jpg, 10-year-old ''B. Cordata'' Image: Hojas de tepozán (Buddleja cordata).jpg , ''B. cordata'' leaves Image: Buddleja cordata.jpg, ''B. cordata'' panicle

Cultivation

The species is cold hardy in the UK. A large specimen grows in the Centenary Border of the

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is an arboretum comprising 72 hectares (180 acres) accommodating over 42,000 trees and shrubs in about 12,000 taxa, notably a collection of oaks, camellia, magnolia and rhododendron. The Gardens are located north ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, another as part of the

NCCPG Plant Heritage, formerly known as the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG), is a registered charity and a botanical conservation organisation in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1978 to combine the talents of bot ...

national collection at

Longstock Park Longstock Park is in the civil parish of Longstock in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, and forms part of the Leckford Estate (1520 ha.), wholly owned by the John Lewis Partnership. Description Formerly Longstock Manor, of ...

Nursery, also in Hampshire.Moore, P. (2012). ''Buddleja List 2011-2012 Longstock Park Nursery''. Longstock Park, UK. Hardiness:

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

zone 8. Stuart, D. (2006). ''Buddlejas''. Plant Collector Guide. Timber Press, Oregon, USA.

Uses

The species (and the genus as a whole) contain secondary

metabolites In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...

such as

flavonoids Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

and

iridoid Iridoids are a type of monoterpenoids in the general form of cyclopentanopyran, found in a wide variety of plants and some animals. They are biosynthetically derived from 8-oxogeranial. Iridoids are typically found in plants as glycosides, mo ...

glycosides In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...

which have shown much promise in the treatment of cancers and a wide range of other disorders.

References

cordata Flora of Mexico Flora of Central America Medicinal plants of North America Dioecious plants {{medicinal-plant-stub