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Portrait of Buddleia

Nature · Shrubs

Buddleia

Neophyte · from China, wild by 1922 · to 4 m · flowers Jun–Oct · railways, walls and waste ground

Buddleja davidii — Scrophulariaceae

Buddleia, the butterfly bush, is the great colonist of Britain's urban wasteland: it exploded across London's bomb sites in the 1940s and 1950s and now grows from railway cuttings, walls and derelict factories, wherever there is rubble and light. Its long purple flower cones are magnets for butterflies, though it feeds none of their caterpillars. It is an escape from Chinese gardens, wind-sown in tens of thousands of tiny seeds.

How to spot them

  • ▸Arching shrub to about 4 m with long, narrow, pointed leaves, dark green above and white-felted beneath
  • ▸Dense, drooping, cone-like spikes of small, honey-scented purple (sometimes white or pink) flowers with an orange eye, June to October
  • ▸Grows out of brick walls, gutters, railway ballast and rubble, on dry stony ground
  • ▸Seed capsules in tens of thousands, with tiny winged seeds blown on the wind
  • ▸Look-alikes: lilac has heart-shaped leaves and flowers in spring; buddleia flowers late summer with narrow leaves, and pulls in butterflies

How to know it

A shrub with long drooping purple flower spikes and narrow, white-backed leaves that sprouts from railway cuttings, walls and derelict buildings

Buddleia — Buddleja davidii.

It spread across London's bomb sites in the 1940s and 1950s, earning the nickname 'the bomb site plant'

Buddleia.

Discovered by the missionary Armand David in China in 1869, it reached Britain via Kew in about 1896

Buddleia — Buddleja davidii, named for Père David.

It was first recorded growing wild in Britain, in Merioneth, in 1922

Buddleia.

Network Rail regards it as destructive, because its roots crack brickwork and it costs around a million pounds a year in damage

Buddleia — the London Wildlife Trust's figure.

It is a 'butterfly bush' that feeds adult butterflies and moths, but offers no food for their caterpillars

Buddleia.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Buddleja davidii, family Scrophulariaceae; the genus commemorates the botanist Adam Buddle and the species Père Armand David
  • •Discovered by Père Armand David in western China in 1869; hardy form introduced commercially by Vilmorin in 1893; reached Britain via Kew around 1896 (London Wildlife Trust)
  • •First recorded in the wild in Britain in Merioneth in 1922 (London Wildlife Trust)
  • •Spread rapidly over London's bomb sites in the 1940s and 1950s, and now thrives on wasteland, railway sidings and scrapyards (London Wildlife Trust)
  • •Free-draining rubble and mortar resemble the rocky river valleys of its native China (London Wildlife Trust)
  • •A mature plant makes tens of thousands of seeds, which remain viable for 3 to 5 years; cutting before seed matures is the key to control (London Wildlife Trust)
  • •Flowers June to October; Richard Mabey counted over 50 butterflies of up to ten species on one bush (Wildlife Trusts)
  • •Adds nectar for adults but no larval food; damage to infrastructure estimated by Network Rail at about £1 million a year (London Wildlife Trust)

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