Buddleja globosa, also known as the Orange Ball Buddleja, is a species native to Chile and Argentina, where it grows in dry and moist forest, from sea level to 2,000 m.[1] It forms a large shrub, with hairy leaves and yellow or orange flowers borne in globose heads. The species was first described and named by Hope in 1782 [2]
B. globosa is a large dioecious shrub < 5 m tall, with grey fissured bark. The young branches are subquadrangular and tomentose, bearing sessile or subsessile lanceolate or elliptic leaves 5 – 15 cm long by 2 – 6 cm wide, glabrescent and bullate above and tomentose below. The deep-yellow to orange leafy-bracted inflorescences comprise one terminal and < 7 pairs of pedunculate globose heads, 1.2 – 2.8 cm in diameter, each with 30 – 50 flowers, heavily honey-scented.[1]
B. globosa was first introduced to the UK from Chile in 1774, and is now commonly grown as an ornamental and landscape shrub in North America and Europe, proving fairly frost-hardy in the UK. Unlike B. davidii, introduced over a century later, B. globosa is not invasive, owing to its dioecious nature, and wingless seeds.[1]
Folk medicine attributes to B. globosa wound healing properties, and the infusion of the leaves is used topically for the treatment or wounds, burns and external and internal ulcers.
(From Wikipedia, 2 October 2011)