Buddleja davidii

Butterfly bush, summer lilac, Summer Lilac

Family: Scrophulariaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Butterfly bush is a naturalized shrub found in the Klamath Ranges and San Francisco Bay Area in disturbed, generally damp soil at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces lilac to purple flowers with a central orange spot in slender, cylindric panicle-like clusters up to 25 centimeters long. Growing as a deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub up to 5 meters tall with sparse branched hairs on dark green upper leaf surfaces, it has a distinctive appearance. Its lanceolate leaves are 5 to 30 centimeters long, with serrate to nearly entire margins and dense white branched hairs on the lower leaf surface. The small fruit is 5 to 6 millimeters long, with seeds that are winged at both ends.

Habitat: Disturbed, generally +- damp soil

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: KR, SnFrB

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.