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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Scrophulariaceae
Buddleja

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 112 (1753).

Derivation: After Rev. Adam Buddle, English botanist, c. 1660-1715, Rector of North Fambridge, Essex.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Usually shrubs, rarely trees or herbs; stems terete or quadrangular; leaves usually opposite, entire or serrate to dentate, rarely lobed, petiolate, the bases of opposite leaves connected by a membrane.

Flowers bisexual, in cymose panicles; calyx shortly or deeply 4-lobed; corolla usually salver-shaped, sometimes campanulate, tube cylindrical, lobes 4, spreading, imbricate in the bud; stamens 4, usually included; ovary usually superior, 2-celled; ovules numerous; style simple; stigma conical or club-shaped.

Fruit a capsule, usually dehiscent, sometimes fleshy and indehiscent.

Distribution:  About 100-120 species especially in the tropical and subtropical regions of America, Africa and Asia.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: There is some controversy over whether the correct spelling is "Buddleja or Buddleia". Linnaeus' spelling in both Sp. Pl. 112 (1753) and Gen. Pl. 51 (1754) is Buddleja. Many botanists have followed Ricket (1955), Taxon 4:185-188, and treat Buddleja as an orthographic error to be corrected to Buddleia. More recently, however, Nicholson (1974), Taxon 23:843-851, has argued that in cases where "j" stands between two vowels the original spelling should be accepted. Nicholson's view has been accepted here and hence Linnaeus' original spelling, Buddleja, has been adopted. A purple-blue-flowered species tentatively identified as *B. davidii Franch. (1887/8), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris s6r. 2, 10:65, (Butterfly hush, summer lilac) is cultivated in SL and may be sparingly naturalised.

Author: Not yet available


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