Buddleja fallowiana var. alba
Variety of plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Buddleja fallowiana var. alba Sabourin is a white-flowered variety of B. fallowiana endemic to Yunnan in western China, where it grows in open woodland, along forest edges and watercourses. The shrub was considered superior to the lavender-blue flowered B. fallowiana by Bean, who thought it one of the most attractive of all buddlejas.[1]
| Buddleja fallowiana var. alba | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
| Genus: | Buddleja |
| Species: | |
| Variety: | B. f. var. alba |
| Trinomial name | |
| Buddleja fallowiana var. alba | |
| Synonyms | |
Introduced to cultivation as seed sent to England in 1925 by Forrest,[2] the variety was named by Sabourin.[3][4] However its status was challenged by Leeuwenberg, who considered its different flower colour and smaller size insufficient to justify its distinction as a variety, and sank it as simply B. fallowiana.[5][6]
Accorded the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit (record 686) in 1993 (reaffirmed 2010);[7][8][9] the shrub also came second (after 'Sungold') in the public poll of 57 Buddleja species and cultivars conducted by the University of Georgia in 1997.[10]
Description
Buddleja fallowiana var. alba is a deciduous, comparatively slow-growing shrub of loose habit, typically growing to a height and width of < 1.7 × 2 m.[10] The young shoots are clothed with a dense white felt. The leaves are lanceolate, tapering to a fine point, with shallowly toothed margins. The size of the leaves varies considerably according to the vigour of the shoot, and can reach 25 cm long by 8 cm wide, the upper surfaces glabrescent and dark-green, the lower surfaces densely tomentose. The inflorescences are lax narrow panicles < 25 cm long by 2.5 – 3 cm wide, and comprise vanilla-scented white flowers with yellow eyes, the corollas 10 mm long. The flowers bloom in late summer and autumn.[1][3] Ploidy: 2n = 76 (tetraploid).