What's Blooming

Blue Butterfly Bush
(Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense')

Not to be confused with the familiar blue butterfly pea (Clitorea ternatea), this ornamental form of the blue butterfly bush (Rotheca myricoides ‘Ugandense’) is a woody evergreen shrub that can reach over 3 meters in height. Native to tropical eastern Africa, mainly Kenya and Uganda, this mint relative has glossy bright green leaves that emit an offensive, distinctly non-minty aroma when rubbed or crushed.

The flowers of this shrub are its star attraction and namesake, with their compound inflorescences bearing flowers that almost perfectly resemble a butterfly in flight. With four, white, wing-like side petals and a fifth blue-purple lower petal representing the head, thorax, and abdomen, the bi-lobed stigma of the flower even replicates the split mouthpart halves of a newly hatched butterfly before it is completely zipped up into a single tubular proboscis. Perhaps the only non-butterfly-like feature are the four long, showy, purple-anthered stamens: a special feature of cultivar ‘Ugandense’: real butterflies only have a single pair of antennae. Both bees and butterflies are attracted to these nectar-producing flowers, so watch the plant and chances are you’ll catch some real butterflies in action too! 

Find the blue butterfly bush at Sensory Trail – a fun, new, hands-on exploratory trail connecting the Garden’s Bayfront MRT and Active Garden! You’ll also find many exciting and odd plants there to tickle your senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste, though please don’t taste any of the plants in our Gardens unless you’re a butterfly! Many of the plants on this trail including blue butterfly bush, rattleweed (Crotalaria retusa), and peacock flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) are butterfly host and nectar plants, so come for your senses and stay for the show featuring both flora and fauna!

If you’re lucky – we weren’t – you’ll be able to catch butterflies as well as bees  flitting from flower to flower on the blue butterfly bush!

This article is part of our What's Blooming series.