“Worse than Japanese knotweed”
While some non native species can be a problem thr media (does) have a tendency to blow things out of proportion or make things seem worse than they actually are. Theres far more hogweed and even more notable far more non native bluebell in the area that Threatens the evolution of the native Blue bell and various others than Budleija. And there’s none crawling over buildings or anything. I almost can’t go anywhere without seeing any ivy at all whatsoever so it’s currently far more abundant
Obviously that might not necessarily be the same every where in the UK cause some places might have more of it than others but the news does like to make things more of a problem than they actually are sometimes and if not then they like to take things to the opposite exstreme sometimes. no one from any conservation organisations have had a say in the article
I do have Budleija in the area but there isn’t so much of it that you can’t go anywhere without seeing one .
I have with my own eyes seen rosemary self seed into a scruffy wall and grow to flowering size. I have also seen silver birch seed into a chimney stack. The chimney stack had to be taken down and the roots removed before rebuilding. It just grew back again each time it was cut off.
I have seen budleija growing out of scruffy brickwork on the off occasion.
It depends on where you are. I know three areas where you can find giant hogweed (the common hogweed is ubiquitous, but it’s native) and plants have turned up elsewhere, but buddleja is common in urban areas, especially on brownfield sites and along railway lines.
Actually seen a few buddleja plants this year that are suffering considerable leaf damage both from aphids and possibly shield bugs (deformed leaves with lighter patches), they were fine last year.
I noticed recently a big derelict industrial side in Weedon just off the A5 covered in buddleia (Google Maps) - which in turn was covered in butterflies. Would be sorry to have all that destroyed because of a “newspaper” article.
Interesting that wikipedia suggests that Buddleja was first noted as an invasive species in UK in 1922, so the Express seems about 100 years late with its ‘news’. That notorious silver birch is also pretty invasive and can also cause buildings to crumble but it is native so perhaps it is not so newsworthy.