Featured Plant

Woolly Butterfly Bush, Buddleja (Buddleia) marrubiifolia

Location: Bed on the south side of One College Centre. (Map)

Characteristics: This plant has been moved from one family to another in various taxonomic schemes. It has been in the Loganiaceae, a family with 13 genera of tropical plants, in a family called Buddlejaceae¹ (Buddleiaceae) and in the Foxglove or Snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae). The genus name Buddleja is in honor of Reverend Adam Buddle, a British amateur botanist, who lived from 1660 to 1715. The Buddlejaceae has about 120 species in 8 genera with Buddleja being the most prominent one. This genus is made up primarily of ornamental trees and shrubs with a few herbs. The Wooly Butterfly Bush is very popular in landscapes in the Southwestern United States, especially in Arizona and Texas. Buddleja marrubiifolia gets its specific epithet from the old Latin name for the Horehound plant, Marrubium vulgare, because the woolly silver-gray foliage of the two plants look very much alike.

The leaves get their soft texture from a covering of tiny hairs. The oppositely-arranged leaves are an inch or slightly more in length and are from 1/3 to 3/4 of an inch in width. These shrubs are usually about 3 feet in height, but they may get as tall as 5 feet.

The very small yellow to red-orange flowers are clustered at the ends of the stems and may look like the flowers of Lantana horrida, another popular butterfly garden plant, to the casual observer. The B. marrubiifolia do attract butterflies, perhaps not as much as the more fragrant Asian species, but certainly fragrant enough to deserve space in Central Texas butterfly gardens. They bloom from spring to late fall. They do well in light well-drained alkali (limestone) soils. They are drought tolerant when they are well established and need no supplemental watering. They are cold hardy to 15 degrees. They will grow in full to part sun and can be propagated from seeds in the spring or from softwood or hardwood cuttings.

There are many Asian Buddleja species in the nursery trade, but the Buddleja marrubiifolia is the only one native to the Americas. This plant makes an excellent accent plant when combined with deep green foliage such as Mountain Laurel or Evergreen Sumac. Add a few clumps of native grasses and Salvia greggii to create a living evergreen fence to entice both the butterflies and the birds to your xeric garden.

Landscape Tour Information: Skeet Powell Temple College Landscape Committee 2600 South First Street Temple, TX 76504 254-298-8690 1-800-460-4636

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