An arching, multi-stemmed deciduous-to-semi-evergreen shrub grown for its long, cone-shaped summer-to-frost panicles of small, honey-scented flowers in purple, magenta, pink, or white. Native to central and western China, it is one of the most magnetic adult-butterfly NECTAR plants you can grow in a hot, sunny border. The honest catch: despite the name it hosts no native butterfly larvae, so it feeds adults but raises none — and the straight species is invasive, escaping along rivers and disturbed ground. Grow it for nectar with eyes open: deadhead it, choose a sterile cultivar, and back it with true native host plants.