Buddleja araucana is endemic to the semi-deserts and steppes of Patagonia, from southern Mendoza to Río Negro and Neuquen provinces in Argentina, and adjacent Chile.

[1] The species was first described and named by Philippi in 1873,[2] it was introduced to cultivation by the British gardener and plant collector Harold Comber[3] as a form B. globosa in 1925.

[4] B. araucana is a dioecious shrub, 1–3 m tall, with grey fissured bark.

The young branches are terete and tomentose, bearing sessile coriaceous leaves linear to lanceolate tomentose on both sides, 3–9 cm long by 0.8–1.8 cm wide.

[4] It is also cultivated at the RBG Edinburgh, and as part of the NCCPG National Buddleja Collections at Longstock Park Nursery and The Lavender Garden, where it is still known (2012) by its old taxon B. nappii.