''Buddleja asiatica'' is a somewhat tender

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 ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

native to a vast area of the

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, including

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

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, and the

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, growing in open woodland at elevations < 2,800 m either as understorey scrub, or as a small tree.Stuart, D. (2006). ''Buddlejas''. Plant Collector Guide. Timber Press, Oregon, USA. First described by Loureiro in 1790, ''B. asiatica'' was introduced to the UK in 1874, and accorded the RHS

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

(record 675) in 1993.Hillier Nurseries (1977). ''Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs''. David & Charles, Newton Abbot. It is highly invasive in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

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, and the

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. Given the huge range of the species, it has inevitably acquired a long list of synonyms.Leeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1979) ''The Loganiaceae of Africa XVIII Buddleja L. II, Revision of the African & Asiatic species''. H. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, Nederland.

Description

''Buddleja asiatica'' can grow < 7 m tall in the wild. The leaves are usually narrowly

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

ovoid An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas of mathematics (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.), it is given a more precise definition, which may inc ...

, < 30 cm long, attached by

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

s 15 mm long, to branches round in section. The sweetly scented flowers are usually white, occasionally pale violet, and borne in late winter at the ends of the long, lax branches in slender panicles, the size of which can vary widely according to source.

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, ...

: 2''n'' = 38 (

diploid 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, ...

).Chen, G, Sun, W-B, & Sun, H. (2007). Ploidy variation in Buddleja L. (Buddlejaceae) in the Sino - Himalayan region and its biogeographical implications. ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.'' 2007, 154, 305 – 312. The Linnean Society of London.

Cultivation

''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 . A specimen is grown under glass by

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, near

Stockbridge, Hampshire Stockbridge is a town and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. It had a population of 592 at the 2011 census. It sits astride the River Test and at the foot of Stockbridge Down. Description The town is situated on th ...

, one of the four

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 holders. Hardiness: RHS H3,

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 ...

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.

Uses

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.

References

*Li, P. T. & Leeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1996). Loganiaceae, in Wu, Z. & Raven, P. (eds) ''Flora of China'', Vol. 15. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, USA.
online at www.efloras.org
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4984421 asiatica Flora of tropical Asia Flora of Taiwan Plants described in 1790