''Buddleja racemosa'', commonly known as the Wand (or Texas) Butterfly Bush, is endemic to the southern edge of the limestone Edwards Plateau in Texas, United States, from

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

to Rocksprings, growing around streams, creeks and springs at elevations of 250 – 750 m. The plant was first named and described by

John Torrey John Torrey (August 15, 1796 – March 10, 1873) was an American botany, botanist, chemist, and physician. Throughout much of his career, he was a teacher of chemistry, often at multiple universities, while he also pursued botanical work, focus ...

in 1859.Torrey, J. (1859). ''Bot. of the Boundary''. 121, 1859Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. ''Flora Neotropica 81'', pp. 135 - 141. New York Botanical Garden, USA

Description

''Buddleja racemosa'' is a small, lax,

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

shrub 0.3 – 1.5 m tall, with greyish-brown rimose bark and persistent old branches. The young branches are terete, tomentose and glandular, bearing small subcoriaceous ovate-oblong to lanceolate leaves 3 – 10 cm long by 1.5 – 4 cm wide, with petioles <2 cm long. The pale yellow inflorescences are 8 – 30 cm long, usually comprising 8 – 12 pairs of small globose heads 0.5 – 0.7 cm in diameter, each head with 6 – 12 flowers.

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'' = 38.

Varieties

Norman identifies two varieties distinguished by the number of stellate hairs on the undersides of the leaves: * '' Buddleja racemosa'' var. ''incana'' * '' Buddleja racemosa'' var. ''racemosa''

Cultivation

The species is not known to be in cultivation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4984704 racemosa Endemic flora of Texas Taxa named by John Torrey Dioecious plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status