Buddleja subcapitata

Buddleja subcapitata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Buddleja
Species: B. subcapitata
Binomial name
Buddleja subcapitata
E. D. Liu

Buddleja subcapitata is a small shrub discovered in 2003 by Liu and Peng in Sichuan, China, growing alongside a road bordering forest in Yanbian County at an elevation of 2,200  m.[1] First described in 2004, this putative species was not included in Leeuwenberg's study of Asiatic and African buddleja published in 1979.[2]

Description

B. subcapitata grows to 1.5  m in height in the wild. The branchlets are quadrangular and densely tomentose, the bark of old branches peeling and often glabrescent. The leaves are lanceolate or obovate - lanceolate, 3.5 11.0  cm long by 1.1 3.1  cm wide, rugose and tomentose above, densely tomentose below. The small terminal inflorescences are erect, compact, capitulum-like panicles comprising many cymes, 1.7 2.5  cm long by 1.9 2.5  cm wide, with usually two leafy bracts at the base. The lilac flowers are densely packed, the corollas 9 10  mm long and densely tomentose outside.[1]

B. subcapitata most closely resembles B. yunnanensis but differs in both flower and leaf morphology.

Cultivation

B. subcapitata is not known to be in cultivation.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Liu, E.D. & Peng, H. (2004). Buddleja subcapitata (Buddlejaceae), a new species from SW Sichuan, China. Ann. Bot. Fenn. 41(6): 467469.
  2. Leeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1979) The Loganiaceae of Africa XVIII Buddleja L. II, Revision of the African & Asiatic species. H. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, Nederland.