Family: Lamiaceae
Common name: Blue fountain bush, Blue glory, Blue-flowered glory tree, Beetle killer
Blue Fountain Bush or Butterfly Bush is a beautiful flowering plant that can be grown as an ornamental or as a medicinal plant.
Plant characteristics
It is a fast-growing plant that can reach a height of 2-3 meters
with a sparsely-branched stem and small, but beautiful flowers.
Leaves are large, glossy, deep green with a serrated edge which gives the plant its name Serrata. They are 7-15 cm long and arranged opposite along the stem, sometimes even 3 at a leaf node.
Flowers are violet, blue, or white in color, about 2-5 cm in diameter. They are unique since the top two petals are much larger and brightly-colored compared to the bottom three petals which are mostly white or lighter blue in color.
The flowers are covered with short, erect, and soft hairs. Stamens and style are arched and clearly visible like in most Clerodendron flowers.
This beautiful coloring makes them look like butterflies and hence the plant is also called Butterfly bush.
These flowers are attractive to birds, bees, insects, and small pollinators when they flowers in large bunches called panicles standing tall above the leaves. The lower flowers open first followed by the ones towards the tip.
Once the Blue fountain bush flowers are pollinated, they fall away leaving behind small calyx cups that look like inverted chandeliers on the plant. Fruits are small, green, four-lobed, fleshy berries that turn deep blue and then black as they mature.
Gardening tips
Blue Fountain bushes need bright, direct sunlight and they grow well in warm, tropical weather. They are tolerant of most soil conditions and drought, but they need well-drained soil. Fertilization needs are also minimal. Regular pruning of lanky, tall branches and spent flowers can help keep the plant bushy and healthy.
These plants have many medicinal uses in traditional herbal medicine, in the treatment of headache, fever, skin diseases, leprosy, asthma, sinusitis, hemorrhoids, joint pain, inflammations, stomach ailments, snake bites, cough, and colic.
Young leaves, shoots, and flowers are eaten raw in salads, though they are quite bitter. They can also be toasted and ground to make a seasoning.
Propagation is through seeds and stem cuttings.
Photographed at: Grand Hyatt, Goa
