Clerodendrum ugandense
Common Names: blue butterfly bush, blue glorybower
Family: Verbenaceae (verbena or vervain Family)
Shrub Perennial, Fast Growing, Has evergreen foliage
Flowers
The delicate blue butterfly bush flowers swarm in clouds at the
tip of each branch.
blue butterfly bush
A closeup of a blue butterfly bush flower shows that they really do
vaguely resemble a butterfly.
Description
Blue butterfly bush is an open and sprawling evergreen shrub that
gets up to 10 ft (3 m) tall and wide, but is easily kept much
smaller. It has opposite leaves that are egg shaped, strongly
toothed and about 3-4 in (7.6-10 cm) long. The inflorescences, borne
at the ends of long arching branches, are panicles 4-10 in (10-25.4
cm) long composed of individual flowers about 1 in (2.5 cm) long,
each with three pale blue lobes and one violet blue lobe. The
flowers look like little butterflies in two different shades of blue
and are produced more or less continuously throughout the summer and
fall.
Location
Blue butterfly bush occurs in Kenya and Uganda in East Africa.
Culture
Light: Grow this clerodendrum in partial shade.
Moisture: Water freely in growth but reduce watering in winter.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 10 - 11. Blue butterfly bush performs best in
a frostfree climate, but it is root hardy in zones 8 and 9, freezing
to the ground in winter, but returning from its roots in spring.
Propagation: Blue butterfly bush is easy to propagate from stem or
root cuttings, or from rooted suckers.
Use blue butterfly bush as a small stand alone specimen or in a
mixed border. Prune back this gangly shrub as needed to keep it in
check. Clerodendrums flower on the current season's growth, so you
can prune them anytime. Cut back the old wood to a pair of buds to
improve flowering. In areas that get frost, you can get the most
consistent flowering year in and year out by growing blue butterfly
bush in a large pot that can be brought indoors when temperatures
approach freezing.
Features
There are more than 400 species of Clerodendrum. The members of this
diverse genus occur naturally in tropical and subtropical Asia and
Africa, and include evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, vines and
herbaceous plants. Tubeflower, also called Turk's turban, (C.
indicum) is a roadside weed now established in the southeastern US,
and Cashmere bouquet (C. bungei) is a nuisance invasive weed in
South Florida - it is pretty though, click here for photo (800x600).
Among the many beautiful ornamental Clerodendrums are flaming
glorybower (C. splendens) and pagoda flower (C. paniculata).
The genus name comes from the Greek: dendron, tree; and kleros,
chance, a reference to the varied medicinal properties purported for
some members of the genus. C. trichotomum, from China, has been
shown to lower high blood pressure, and is prescribed in Chinese
herbal medicine for a variety of ailments. |
