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Buddleja crispa; photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-06-16

Buddleja crispa Benth.

Himalayan butterfly bush

Scrophulariaceae · Afghanistan, Iran +9

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Buddleja crispa, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buddleja crispa, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buddleja crispa, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buddleja crispa, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buddleja crispa, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buddleja crispa, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) 14 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.9°C
Record low -8.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,287mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes February to April and June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Buddleja crispa, the Himalayan butterfly bush, is a deciduous shrub native to Iran, Afghanistan, Bhutan, North India, Nepal, Pakistan and China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibetan Autonomous Region and north to Gansu), where it grows on dry river beds, slopes with boulders, exposed cliffs, and in thickets, at altitudes of 1400–4300 m. Named by Bentham in 1835, B. crispa was introduced to cultivation in 1850, and came to be considered one of the more attractive species within the genus. In 1961, it was accorded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit, and in 1997 it ranked 8th out of 57 species and cultivars in a public poll arranged by the Center for Applied Nursery Research (CANR) at the University of Georgia, US. However, the species is not entirely cold-hardy, and thus its popularity is not as ubiquitous as it might otherwise be.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Buddleja crispa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Buddleja

Buddleja is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The generic name bestowed by Linnaeus posthumously honoured Adam Buddle (1662–1715), an English botanist and rector, at the suggestion of William Houstoun. Houstoun sent the first plants to become known to science as buddleja to England from the Caribbean about 15 years after Buddle's death. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Buddleja", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (927 mm of 1,195 mm) falls in February to April and June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 15.1 °C against a yearly mean of 12.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March and August to October.

Rain

1,195 mm in the median year at the habitat, 927 mm of it February to April and June to September. Wettest month July at 213 mm, driest month November at 23 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 550 mm to 1,866 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,287 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,195 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.9 °C, the absolute minimum -8.6 °C, 1,476 frost nights in 44 years, 33.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -4.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -14.0 °C to 4.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.5 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +507 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Buddleja crispa through the yearWarmest month June, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -4.6 °C; 1,195 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost37.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-8.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 20–46RH 49–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 87 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / -3–167 / -1–1813 / 3–2219 / 7–2823 / 12–3426 / 15–3625 / 16–3324 / 15–3122 / 14–3119 / 9–2814 / 3–2210 / -1–18
Night °C-5 / -14–4-3 / -12–61 / -9–105 / -5–1510 / 0–2014 / 5–2416 / 8–2416 / 7–2412 / 5–216 / -2–152 / -9–10-2 / -12–6
Rain mm76 / 5–117103 / 7–162125 / 18–21592 / 30–18275 / 38–13696 / 37–184213 / 86–399196 / 86–349102 / 41–20748 / 13–8423 / 6–4746 / 4–78
DLI22 / 19–2927 / 24–3534 / 31–4241 / 38–4746 / 43–4946 / 35–4937 / 29–4534 / 28–4134 / 29–3931 / 26–3624 / 21–3020 / 17–27
RH %51 / 47–5752 / 48–5853 / 49–5851 / 47–5849 / 45–6151 / 45–6561 / 54–7064 / 57–7158 / 52–6751 / 46–6150 / 44–5750 / 46–56
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 87 grid cells holding the 102 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1106:5046 (34.675, 72.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 87 distinct grid cells holding 102 of the 102 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1106:5046 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_72.500, lapse-corrected +507 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1549 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAfghanistan, Iran, China South-Central, China North-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker28.71, 99.28 · in the densest population, 102 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 237 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 102 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 149 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2596 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 135 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 237 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Buddleja crispa, photograph 1did not loadBuddleja crispa, photograph 2did not loadBuddleja crispa, photograph 3did not loadBuddleja crispa, photograph 4did not loadBuddleja crispa, photograph 5did not loadBuddleja crispa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Tulipa clusiana Tulipa clusiana Lady tulip Photo: CC0, author not statedChrysojasminum humile Chrysojasminum humile Yellow Jasmine Photo: CC BY, Alice ShanksBerberis lycium Berberis lycium Indian barberry Photo: CC BY-SA, LazaregagnidzeStrobilanthes attenuata Strobilanthes attenuata Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeDioscorea deltoidea Dioscorea deltoidea Elephant's Foot Photo: CC BY, Ramnarayan K Ranunculus distans Ranunculaceae

Other Buddleja 37 in the reference

Buddleja albiflora Buddleja albiflora Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Claude DancetteBuddleja alternifolia Buddleja alternifolia Alternate-leaved Butterfly-bush Photo: CC0, author not statedBuddleja americana Buddleja americana Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Matteo CassellaBuddleja asiatica Buddleja asiatica Dog tail Photo: CC0, author not statedBuddleja auriculata Buddleja auriculata Weeping Sagewood Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelBuddleja colvilei Buddleja colvilei Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossBuddleja cordata Buddleja cordata Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Muñoz-AmezcuaBuddleja coriacea Buddleja coriacea Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY, capacoscarBuddleja crotonoides Buddleja crotonoides Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroBuddleja curviflora Buddleja curviflora Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 阿橋 HQBuddleja davidii Buddleja davidii Butterfly-bush Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaBuddleja delavayi Buddleja delavayi Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC0, Ptelea all 38 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Buddleja acosma; Buddleja agathosma; Buddleja agathosma var. glandulifera; Buddleja caryopteridifolia var. eremophila; Buddleja caryopteridifolia var. fasciculiflora and 20 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Buddleja caryopteridifolia: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Scrophulariaceae
Described by
Benth.
Native to
Afghanistan, Iran, China South-Central +8
Wild records
237 in range · 149 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_72.500, lapse-corrected +507 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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