One of the toughest indigenous shrubs, Buddleja salviifolia is evergreen with attractive grey-green leaves. It bears lovely clusters of fragrant, white, cream, lilac, or purple flowers in late winter or early spring.
These plants are fast-growing and can be effectively used for screening or to create windbreaks. With pruning these plants can be kept youthful and shapely.
Family: BUDDLEJACEAE (Buddleja family).
Alternatively Scrophulariaceae (in broad sense) (Snapdragon Family)
Name Derivation:
- Buddleja – named after the Rev. Adam Buddle (1660 – 1715) an English amateur botanist and vicar of Farnham, Essex.
- salviifolia – leaves like those of a salvia (sage).
Common Names:
Sagewood, (Eng), saliehout (Afr), molalathau (Nso), lelothoane (Sso), umbatancwepe (Swa), modiaṱholana (Ven), igqange (Xho) & ilothane (Zul).
FSA Number: 636 Zim Number: 835
Features of Buddleja salviifolia
Form:
- A large shrub or small evergreen tree, often multi-stemmed.
- Branches often droop, giving the plant a soft, feminine look.
Size: 3 – 4 m (–8 m) by 3 – 4 m.
Stem and Bark:
- Most often multi-stemmed.
- Bark on older branches is striated and grey-brown.
- Young branchlets and shoots covered with white or grey woolly hair, the branchlets are often square.
- Branches often droop, giving the plant a soft, feminine look.
The bark of older Buddleja salviifolia stems is grey and brown and striated.
Buddleja salviifolia leaves are simple, opposite, lanceolate, and wrinkly above.
Buddleja salviifolia flowers are small but clustered together on large terminal clusters.
Thorns: No Thorns.
Foliage:
- Evergreen.
- Leaves are simple, opposite, lanceolate, quite wrinkly above.
- Leaves are silvery-grey to dark green above and whitish to rusty, often hairy, below.
- There is seldom a petiole, the leaf base wrapped around the stem.
- The midrib and net-venation are prominent on the lower surface.
Flowers:
- The small flowers are borne in attractive, tight sprays at the ends of branches.
- Each flower is a narrow tube about 12 mm
- Flowers are sweetly scented and are white, cream, lilac or purple.
- Flowering in late winter, the smell is one associated with our Highveld winter
Colour: White, cream, lilac or purple.
Flowering Months: Jul – Oct.
Fragrance: Sweetly fragrant.
Fruit: Small capsule between Oct and Dec.
Growing Buddleja salviifolia
In the Garden:
Buddleja salviifolia is an excellent, fast growing, extremely cold hardy large shrub.
- With its grey-green to dark green leaves it will add a contrasting colour to a garden.
- It flowers at the end of winter, adding colour and fragrance when not much else is flowering.
- It grows happily in most soil types, including very wet, marshy soil.
- A good pioneer plant for stabilizing stream, dam and water furrow embankments.
- May be grown and pruned into a hedge or used as an informal screen.
- May also be used to create windbreaks.
- A good wildlife friendly plant, attracting insects and birds to a garden.
- Popular as a bonsai subject.
- Fast growing, up to metre or more in a year.
- A water-wise choice.
A Buddleja salviifolia grown in a flowerbed with other indigenous plants in an events venue garden.
A pale mauve flowered form of Buddleja salviifolia.
A white flowered form of Buddleja salviifolia.
Flowers of a pink flowered form.
Soil Needs:
- Almost any soil, but best in a fertile soil.
- Used to stabilize embankments and stream, furrow and riverbanks.
Care:
- A low maintenance plant.
- Feed with organic fertilizer and mulch with compost.
- Prune back harshly to stop the plant from getting lanky.
Cold Hardiness: Very cold hardy.
Water Requirements:
- Drought hardy but thrives on regular summer water.
- Will happily grows in very wet conditions.
- A water-wise plant.
Light Requirements: Full sun, but also partial shade.
Space Requirements: Plant 3 -4 metres apart, closer for thick screening.
Roots: The roots are quite aggressive.
Ecology of Buddleja salviifolia
Birds:
Some birds are attracted to the insects that visit these shrubs.
Bees:
- The flowers are a good source of pollen and nectar for bees.
- Buddleja salviifolia is often planted by bee farmers as a source for bee food.
Butterflies and other Insects:
- Many insects, butterflies, especially Painted Ladies, and moths visit the flowers.
Medicinal:
- A root decoction is used to treat coughs and colic.
- An eye lotion is made from an infusion of the leaves.
Poisonous: Not poisonous
Buddleja salviifolia flowers provide food to Honey Bees during late winter and early spring.
A Buddleja salviifolia growing in habitet in the Cradle of Mankind.
A natural thicket of Buddleja salviifolia growing in Oak Tree, north of Krugersdorp.
Notes of interest:
- A pioneer tree that indicates areas that could become forested were it not for fires.
- A tea made from fresh or dried leaves is drunk with some honey but no milk.
- The leaves are browsed by game.
- Beekeepers sometimes plant Buddleja salviifolias to provide food for their bees.
- The wood is used to make assegais and fishing rods.
Natural Distribution:
- Found in the WC, EC, Les, KZN, Esw, M, FS, NWP, G, L, western Moz and eastern Zim.
- Its range extends northwards into Tanzania.
Natural Habitat:
- Grasslands, fynbos, Nama-Karoo, forests, savanna-bushveld and thickets.
- Occurs along water courses and riverine fringes, forest margins and on mountain slopes.
Links to other species of the Buddleja genus.
To go to the “plant blog” click on the picture or plant name.
References:
Boon, Richard “Pooley’s Trees of Eastern South Africa, a Complete Guide” 2nd ed. 2010 Flora & Fauna Publications Durban.
Botha, Charles & Julia “Bring Nature Back to Your Garden” 1995 Natal Branch of the Wildlife Society. Durban
Coates Palgrave, K C, edited Coates Palgrave, M C “Trees of Southern Africa” 2002 Struik Publishers Cape Town
Honig, Marijke “Indigenous Plant Palettes” 2014 Quivertree Publications Cape Town
Joffe, Pitta & Oberholzer, Tinus “Creative Gardening with Indigenous Plants, A South African Guide” 2nd ed. 2012 Briza Publications Pretoria
Johnson, David & Sally & Nichols, Geoff “Gardening with Indigenous Trees” 2002, Struik Publishers Cape Town
Mutshinyalo, Thompson. T. “Buddleja salviifolia” 2001 Plantza, Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens Link: pza.sanbi.org/buddleja-salviifolia
Palmer, E & Pitman, N “Trees of Southern Africa Volume 3” 1973 A A Balkema Cape Town
Schmidt, E, Lotter M Cleland W “Trees and Shrubs of Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park 2002 Jacana Johannesburg
Van Wyk, A, van den Berg, E, Coates Palgrave, M & Jordaan, M Dictionary of names for southern African trees” 2011..Briza Publications Pretoria
Wikipedia “Buddleja salviifolia” Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddleja_salviifolia