Butterfly bush or Fountain butterfly bush: how to tell them apart?
Butterfly bush and Fountain butterfly bush look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Butterfly bush
Buddleja davidii
Fountain butterfly bush
Buddleja alternifolia
As their names suggest, the difference shows on the stem: leaves opposite (two by two, facing each other) in the common butterfly bush, alternate (one by one, staggered) in the fountain butterfly bush.
🍃 Leaves
Long, lanceolate, greyish green above, white-felted beneath
Deciduous, narrow, alternate (unlike other butterfly bushes, which have opposite leaves), grey-green
🌸 Flowers
Long conical spikes of small mauve, pink or white flowers, rich in nectar
Small, lilac-mauve, fragrant, grouped in small dense clusters all along the arching shoots of the previous year
🍎 Fruits
Small dry capsules containing numerous winged seeds.
Small dry capsule
🪵 Bark
Brownish-grey stems that grow fast and become woody with age
Greyish-brown, slender, drooping twigs
📏 Size
2 to 3 m tall
3 to 4 m tall
🗺️ Habitat
Wasteland, banks, gardens, any soil even poor
Planted as a specimen or informal hedge, ordinary well-drained soils
⚠️ Toxicity
No known toxicity.
No notable toxicity known
🔎 And from the Fountain butterfly bush side
As their names suggest, the difference shows on the stem: leaves opposite (two by two, facing each other) in the common butterfly bush, alternate (one by one, staggered) in the fountain butterfly bush.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.