Scientific Name: Buddleja asiatica
Synonym: Buddleia asiatica
Common Names: Dogtail, Dog Tail, Asian Butterfly Bush
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub
Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized medicinal and fragrance garden plant is native to Asia.
Flower Color: White, Pale violet (rare), Greenish (rare)
Height: Up to 10 feet (3 m) tall or more
Description: The flowers are in slender, tapering, often drooping, up to 8 inch (20 cm) long, terminal and axillary flower spikes. The individual flowers are small, bell-shaped, and have 4 ruffled lobes. The flowers are followed by dry, brown, rounded seed capsules. The leaves are green above, whitish green and hairy below, opposite to sometimes alternate near the branch tips, minutely toothed or not, and lanceolate in shape. The young stems are densely hairy. The plants are weedy and unattractive looking.
Dogtail grows in pastures, along roadsides, and in other mesic (moderately wet) to wet, low to middle elevation disturbed areas.
Fragrant – The flowers have a delightfully sweet, fruity, ambrosia fragrance.
Poisonous – The plants are poisonous.
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Family: Buddlejaceae – Butterfly-bush family
Genus: Buddleja L. – butterflybush
Species: Buddleja asiatica Lour. – dogtail
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