Butterfly Bush

Buddleja davidii

CONTAIN

Family: Buddlejaceae (Buddleja)

Other Scientific Names: Buddleia davidii

Other Common Names: Summer Lilac

Origin: China

Growth Form/Reproduction: Deciduous shrub with arching branches, growing up to 5m tall. Reproducinve means are by cutting and seed. Each plant is can produce up to 1million seeds, which can persist in the soil for 3-5 years.

Legal Status: None.

Impacts:
Economic: In forests it can compete with replanted Douglas-fir trees, affecting forest succession and growth thus reducing timber values.
Ecological: Can alter proportions of nitrogen and phosphorous in the soil. Displaces native plants, causing loss of habitat for butterflies.
Human: Ornamental shrub with showy, fragrant purple flowers that bloom from mid to late summer.

Habitat: Full sun. Adapted to moist, well drained fertile soils but tolerates poor soils and dry sites. Occupies disturbed sites in riparian zones, river banks and gravel beds, roadsides, pastures, logged areas and rocky slopes.

Status and Distribution: Limited distribution in Strathcona and Comox Valley Regional Districts in the CWHxm.

Management Strategy: Minimize soil disturbance in Butterfly-bush infested sites. Butterfly-push is a prolific seed producer and the seeds readily germinate in open sites with disturbed soils. The plant can be controlled by hand-pulling small plants, best when the soil is moist. Larger plants can be cut to the base, dug up or winched out. Stumps can be treated with a glyphosate or the stump can be covered with a thick plastic bag or mulch. Do not leave stems on the ground, or they may take root. Remove new sprouts that may appear. If plants cannot be removed, cut off flower stems before seed set. No biocontrol is available in Canada.