Butterfly bush

Description

Buddleja skutchii is a dioecious tree 5 – 25 m tall, with brown to blackish fissured bark. The young branches are quadrangular and tomentose, bearing lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate leaves 6 – 20 cm long by 2 – 10 cm wide, membranaceous to subcoriaceous, glabrescent above, below with adpressed indumentum, the margins entire. The yellow to orange paniculate leafy-bracted inflorescences are 8 – 15 cm long by 8 – 20 cm wide, comprising 3 – 4 orders of branches bearing small cymules 0.4 – 0.6 cm in diameter, each with 3 – 15 flowers. Ploidy: 2n = 76.