FoI
Madagascar Butterfly Bush
Share Foto info
Madagascar Butterfly Bush
ntroduced Photo: Shaista Ahmad
Common name: Madagascar Butterfly Bush, Smoke bush
Botanical name: Buddleja madagascariensis    Family: Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family)
Synonyms: Buddleia madagascariensis

Madagascar Butterfly Bush is a sprawling shrub, 2-3 m tall. It is closely related to the Butterfly Bush, however the flowers are orange yellow here, as opposed to violet-pink in the Butterfly Bush. Stems are densely velvety. Opposiely arranged leaves are narrowly ovate, 7-12 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide. Upper side of the leaves is smooth, and the under-side is densely velvety which makes it look silvery or smokey. Leaf margins are entire, and the stalks are 1.5-2.5 cm long. Flowers in cymes at the end of branches. Sepals cup is bell-shaped, about 3 mm long, densely velvety, sepals being 0.5 mm long. Flowers are orange- yellow, densely velvety on the outside and smooth within. Fruit is white, becoming bluish purple at maturity, fleshy, round, about 2.5 mm in diameter.

Identification credit: Shaista Ahmad
Photographed at JNCASR, Bangalore.
• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,