Common names include, but are not limited to : summer lilac, butterfly-bush, orange eye, Buddleia du père David, Arbre aux papillons, 大叶醉鱼草, da ye zuiyucao, , Schmetterlingsflieder, Sommerflieder, Gewöhnlicher Sommerflieder, Schmetterlingsstrauch, arbusto de las mariposas (…)
‘B. davidii is a multi-stemmed shrub or small-tree that is native to China and has been introduced as an ornamental world-wide, first to Europe (1890s) and then later to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and some parts of Africa. Since that time, B. davidii has naturalized within sub-oceanic climates in the temperate and sub-Mediterranean zones.
The full potential of this species has yet to be realized; however, it is already considered problematic (i.e. out-competing native, agricultural, and forestry species) in northwestern and northeastern USA and Canada, throughout New Zealand, and in central Europe. B. davidii is tolerant of a broad range of environmental conditions, capable of prolific seed production, grows rapidly, and has a short juvenile period. Due to its popularity, nurseries continue to distribute plants capable of setting seed. Garden residents as well as escapees serve as satellites, which then spread the species on to disturbed and wild lands and this is a cause for concern.’
Source : CABI Digital Library
China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet
Alabama, Argentina South, Ascension, Belgium, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, British Columbia, Bulgaria, California, Cameroon, Colombia, Connecticut, Corse, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Delaware, District of Columbia, East Himalaya, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Illinois, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kentucky, Malaya, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Netherlands, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, North Carolina, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pakistan, Pennsylvania, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Rhode I., Romania, Rwanda, South Carolina, Spain, Switzerland, Tasmania, Tennessee, Transcaucasus, Trinidad-Tobago, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virginia, Washington, West Himalaya, West Virginia, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Source : Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
1890
Augustine Henry, an Irish botanist, recovers the plant in the Sichuan Region, China, in 1890 and sends specimens to Saint-Petersburg, Russia.¹
1895
The first seedlings are grown at the Vilmorin property in Verrières-le-Buisson, France. Maurice de Vilmorin received seeds from father Soulié, à Missionary operating in Tibet.¹
1916
Buddleja davidii is largely cultivated and commercialised.¹
1922
First recorded growing wild in Britain in Merionith, eastern Wales.
1940’s
B. davidii naturalized on a significant scale in the 1940s in parts of Europe, after the destruction of cities during World War II. Bombed sites and building rubble were suitable colonization habitats and therefore dense B. davidii thickets established on these sites.²
1. Serge Muller (coord.), Plantes invasives en France, Publications scientifiques du MNHN, 2004
2. Kreh, 1952; Kunick, 1970; Owen and Whiteway, 1980; Miller, 1984; Coats and Creech, 1992; Tallent-Halsell and Watt, 2009