Buddleja crispa, sometimes called the Himalayan butterfly bush, is native to Afghanistan, Bhutan, North India, Nepal, Pakistan and China (Gansu, Sichuan, Tibetan Autonomous Region), where it grows on dry river beds, slopes with boulders, exposed cliffs, and in thickets, at elevations of 1400–4300 m. Named by Bentham in 1835, B. crispa was introduced to cultivation in 1850, and came to be considered one of the more attractive species within the genus; it ranked 8th out of 57 species and cultivars in a public poll organized by the (CANR) at the University of Georgia, US. . In the UK, B. crispa was accorded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit in 1961. However, the species is not entirely cold-hardy, and thus its popularity is not as ubiquitous as it might otherwise be.