Buddleja colvilei Hook. fil. & Thomson

Shrubs or small trees, 2--6 m tall. Branchlets subquadrangular to subterete, with scattered stellate and glandular hairs, glabrescent. Leaves sessile or with petiole to 1 cm and with same indumentum as branchlets; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to subelliptic, 7--16 X 2--6 cm, covered with stellate and scattered glandular hairs when young, glabrescent, base cuneate to rounded or decurrent, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal and in axils of upper leaves, paniculate or thyrsoid cymes, 7--23 X 4--6 cm. Calyx campanulate, 6--8 X 4--8 mm, tube 4--5 mm; lobes ovate to triangular, 1.5--3 X 1.5--3 mm, outside densely stellate tomentose with glandular hairs or with glandular and more or less scattered stellate hairs, inside with glandular hairs. Corolla purple to wine red, 2.3--3 cm; tube broadly cylindrical, (1.2--)1.7--2.1 cm, base 5--8 mm in diam., throat to 9 mm in diam.; lobes suborbicular, 5--10 X 5--10 mm, outside with some stellate and glandular hairs but soon glabrescent, inside pilose at throat, margin crenate. Stamens inserted 2--6 mm below mouth; anthers oblong, 2.5--5 mm, apex obtuse to apiculate. Ovary ovoid, 5--8 mm, stellate tomentose. Style long, thick, glabrous or basally stellate tomentose; stigma capitate. Capsules ellipsoid, 1--1.6 X 0.6--0.8 cm, glabrous or stellate tomentose. Seeds oblong, 1--1.5 mm, unwinged. Fl. Jun-Sep.

E. Himalaya (Nepal to NEFA).

S Xizang, Yunnan (Mojiang Hanizu Zizhi Xian, Luxi Xian) [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].

2700-3100 m

Open forests, thickets, open places; 1600--4200 m.

Buddleja sessilifolia B. S. Sun ex S. Y. Pao.

Buddleja colvilei is endemic to the eastern Himalaya; discovered by Hooker in 1849, he declared it 'the handsomest of all Himalayan shrubs.' In 1896 the species was awarded the RHS First Class Certificate (FCC), given to plants 'of outstanding excellence for exhibition'.