''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 A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

, who thought it one of the most attractive of all buddlejas.Bean, W. J. (1917). ''Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain'', 7th edition. Murray, London. Introduced to cultivation as seed sent to England in 1925 by Forrest,Hatch, L. (2007). ''Cultivars of Woody Plants''. Vol. 1 (A-G), 2007 Edition. TCR Press Horticultural PDF. books. the variety was named by Sabourin.Sabourin, L. (1929). Le Buddleia fallowiana et sa variété alba. ''Revue Hort.'' (Paris): 101: 418. 1929.Stuart, D. (2006). ''Buddlejas''. Plant Collector Guide. Timber Press, Oregon, USA. 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''.Leeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1979) ''The Loganiaceae of Africa XVIII Buddleja L. II, Revision of the African & Asiatic species''. H. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, Nederland. Li, P. T. & Leeuwenberg, A. J. M. (1996). Loganiaceae, in Wu, Z. & Raven, P. (eds) ''Flora of China'', Vol. 15. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, USA.
online at www.efloras.org
/ref> Accorded the Royal Horticultural Society

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

(record 686) in 1993 (reaffirmed 2010);Royal Horticultural Society. (2010). ''Trials Report 2008-2010 Buddleja davidii and its close hybrids'' Trials Office, Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley, UK. 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.

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.
/ref> The young shoots are clothed with a dense white felt. The leaves are leaf shape, 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 Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

and dark-green, the lower surfaces densely tomentose. The inflorescences are lax narrow

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s < 25 cm long by 2.5 – 3 cm wide, and comprise vanilla-scented white flowers with yellow eyes, the

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

s 10 mm long. The flowers bloom in late summer and autumn.

Ploidy Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of mat ...

: ''2n'' = 76 (tetraploid).

Cultivation

Somewhat tender, var. ''alba'' is better grown against a wall. However, if cut to the ground by frost, it will grow again from the base. Growth is significantly slower than that of ''B. davidii'', Bean considering the species more closely allied to ''B. nivea''. Hardiness: RHS H5, USDA zones 8–9.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16975329 fallowiana var. alba Flora of China