Flora of New Zealand Series

Madagascar buddleia

Large spreading or rambling evergreen shrub to c. 5 m high. Shoots obscurely angular, tomentose. Lvs opposite; petioles 1-2.5 cm long; lamina 6-14 × 1.7-5.5 cm, lanceolate-ovate or lanceolate-elliptic, soon becoming glabrous above, white or pale brownish tomentose beneath, entire or slightly crenulate on vegetative shoots; base rounded, less often broad-cuneate or subcordate; apex acute. Panicles to c. 25 cm long, cylindric, rather tomentose; fls fragrant, sessile or subsessile, sometimes loose in the raceme. Bracts linear-subulate, to c. 6 mm long. Calyx 2.5-4 mm long; lobes short and triangular. Corolla tomentose outside; tube 6-7 mm long, pale yellow; lobes 2-3 mm long, pale yellow, becoming orange. Stamens inserted near apex of corolla tube, included; anthers sessile. Style slightly < stamens. Ovary tomentose at apex. Fr. not seen.

N.: Waipapa (near Kerikeri), Bream Bay (near Whangarei), Thames; S.: port area, Nelson.

Madagascar 1946

Sand dunes, coastal cliffs.

FL Sep-Oct.

The limited spread of B. madagascariensis from cultivation suggests that frs and seeds may not be formed in N.Z., and in fact the small purplish black berries are rarely seen anywhere in cultivation. Some taxonomists refer this sp. to the genus Nicodemia Ten.