Buddleja glomerata Seeds
Karoo Sagewood
Buddleja, or Buddleia commonly known as the butterfly bush is a genus comprising over 100 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The generic name bestowed by Linnaeus posthumously honoured the Reverend Adam Buddle (16621715), a botanist and rector in Essex, England, at the suggestion of Dr. William Houstoun. Houstoun sent the first plants to become known to science as buddleja (B. americana) to England from the Caribbean about 15 years after Buddle's death. Buddleja glomerata, commonly known as The Karoo Sagewood, is an attractive foliage plant with silvery, scalloped leaves and heads of yellow flowers during spring and summer. It forms a small tree up to 4 m in height and 3 m wide or grows into a bushy, upright and straggling shrub. Buddleja glomerata is fast growing and has an expected life span of 17 years. Several stems develop at the base of the plant and are covered in light brown, stringy bark. Young branches are flat, angled, light green in colour and are covered with whitish hairs whereas older branches are light brown. The young leaves are silvery green and fade to a bluish green when older. Leaves are oblong, 127 x 2-26 mm, arranged in opposite pairs on branches. The upper surface of the leaf is bluish green, rough textured, wrinkled and sparsely hairy. The lower surface is covered with white or brownish hairs and a clearly visible, thick midrib and lateral veins. Leaf margins are scalloped, wavy and lobed. Bright yellow flowers, in dense heads are carried in panicles at the end of the branches, enhancing the foliage of the plant from September to March. The minute flowers are borne in dense, round heads. The yellow anthers of the stamens protrude from the flowers. It has been recorded that the scent of the flower smells foul and the smell is supposed to be that of a cockroach; the pollen of the flower can cause sneezing, hence the common names cockroach and kakkerlak, sneezebush and niesbos. The fruit is a small, hairy capsule.
