Native to Sichuan and Hubei provinces in central China.
A vigorous shrub with an arching habit, growing to 5 m (16 ft) in height. The pale brown bark becomes deeply fissured with age. The branches are quadrangular in section. The honey-scented lilac to purple inflorescences are terminal panicles, < 20 cm long. Flowers are perfect (having both male and female parts).
It is widely used as an ornamental plant, and many named varieties are in cultivation. B. davidii is named for the Basque missionary and explorer in China, Father Armand David, who was the first European to report the shrub. It was found near Ichang by Dr Augustine Henry about 1887 and sent to St Petersburg. Another botanist-missionary in China, Jean-André Soulié, sent seed to the French nursery Vilmorin, and B. davidii entered commerce in the 1890s.