Buddleja utahensis

Panamint butterfly bush

Family: Scrophulariaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Panamint butterfly bush is a California native shrub found in the Mojave Desert Mountains on dolomite, limestone, and volcanic slopes at elevations below 1,900 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces cream-yellow flowers that age to purple or brown-purple in dense, spherical clusters about 10 to 15 millimeters wide. Growing as a compact, densely branched shrub less than 50 centimeters tall, it features stellate or branched hairs distributed throughout its structure. Its leaves are thick, linear-oblong, measuring 1.5 to 3 centimeters long with entire to slightly wavy margins that curl under. As a dioecious species, the plant produces unisexual flowers with small, 4 to 5 millimeter cream-yellow corollas.

Habitat: Uncommon. Slopes, generally on dolomite, limestone, volcanic rocks

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside

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