Butterfly Bush

The Butterfly Bush:

This plant gets its name as its long ‘cone-shaped’ cluster of flowers attract hordes of butterflies and winged insects like bees. These fragrant flowers are loaded with nectar and has an orange throat or eye at the center of each flower. These plants spreads rapidly, as it produces thousands of seeds during every flowering season. These plants are full of these clusters of flowers, that makes the branches to arc downwards like a fountain, which gives the plant a weeping form.

Often this plant outgrows other plants growing nearby because of its fast invasive growth nature. So it is better to remove the deadheads of these flowers once it is dry. In some parts of US, butterfly bush is named as  “ noxious weed” and hence these plants are banned from keeping them in public places because of this invasive nature. Also another not so good part about these plants is that, the butterfly larvae cannot feed from them, so the butterflies have to be in search for another plant as their host to lay eggs. For a plant with a name ‘Butterfly bush’, with blooms which butterflies cannot resist to reach, but cannot take shelter in them to lay eggs and multiply! Funny thing…

Common Name: Butterfly Bush, Summer Lilac, Orange Eye

Botanical Name: Buddleja davidii

Family: Scrophulariaceae

Pictures of butterfly bush: [Photo Credits: Seema, UK]