Benth.
Description
Buddleja crispa is a shrub of the dry inner valleys and warm temperate slopes of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, distributed through China, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan, with close to 1100 occurrences in GBIF. It favours open, sunny, often rocky and somewhat arid sites: cliff ledges, river gravels, dry hillsides, roadside banks and the margins of cultivation, generally between about 1000 and 3000 m. The plant photographed at the Doch La in Bhutan at 1400 m in April, flowering in spring on a warm montane pass, is typical of its early-season bloom on exposed, well-drained slopes where its grey-felted foliage withstands strong insolation and seasonal drought.
The species is a much-branched, deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub reaching 1–4 m, densely clothed throughout in white to greyish stellate and woolly tomentum that gives it a markedly silvery appearance. The leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate, with crisped, crenate or dentate, often undulate margins (the source of the epithet), and a thick indumentum, particularly beneath. The fragrant flowers are borne in dense, terminal and axillary panicles; each has a tubular corolla that is lilac to pale purple with an orange or yellow throat, the four-lobed limb spreading. The fruit is a small, two-valved septicidal capsule containing numerous minute seeds.
Buddleja, formerly placed in its own family Buddlejaceae or in Loganiaceae, is now treated within an expanded Scrophulariaceae, as on the source page. B. crispa is a variable species across its wide range and has given rise to several named varieties and to horticultural selections valued for their scented, early flowers and tolerance of dry, sunny conditions. The flowers attract butterflies and other insects. The species is widespread, often pioneering on disturbed ground, and is not of conservation concern.
Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Pakistan, A Revision of the Asiatic Species of Buddleja (Scrophulariaceae)