Buddleja albiflora Hemsley

Buddleja albiflora is a Chinese Buddleja superficially very similar to B. davidi, but it is significantly less common in gardens despite having been introduced by Wilson in 1901 (Bean 1976). There have been occasional later collections: for example Stuart (2006) mentions Lancaster 1577 from Sichuan in 1981, presumably gathered during the SBEC expedition. Although very hardy, it is unlike B.davidi in being more or less fully deciduous rather than semi-evergreen. The epithet is something of a misnomer, as most plants have pale lilac to medium mauve flowers; the inflorescences can be very long, although the individual flowers are both smaller and less dense on the panicle than in B. davidii. B. albiflora can also be distinguished from B.davidi and B. myriantha by the pigmented and more rounded stems. There are also notable differences in the flowers: unlike B. davidi, the mouth of the flower contains numerous simple hairs; the exterior of the corolla tube is mostly glabrous, whereas that of B. myriantha is tomentose.

Buddleja × alata Rehder & Wilson herbarium specimens were considered a perfect intermediate of B. nivea and B. albiflora by Leeuwenberg (1979), and hence may be a natural hybrid of the two species, although this remains unconfirmed by any later study; no example is currently known in cultivation. In gardens, B. albiflora hybridises readily with several species, including B.davidii, but none are in commerce.