 "B. davidii" is named after the French 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.