Buttonbush

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Buttonbush

Buttonbush fruits

Buttonbush trunk

Buttonbush

Buttonbush

Buttonbush leaves

Buttonbush leaf

Buttonbush

Buttonbush leaves

Buttonbush leaves

Buttonbush flowers

Buttonbush inflorescence

Morphology

Trunk

Usually several from base, rarely small tree; bark furrowed, thick, dark brown, ridges flat-topped; branches spreading, slender, brown or grey, glabrous.

Twigs

Slender, glabrous, grayish-brown; lenticels conspicuous, vertical.

Leaves

Opposite or in whorls of 3, simple, entire, ovate-oblong to broadly elliptic, 2.5 to 7.5 inches long, 1.2 to 3.6 inches wide, shiny and bright green above, mostly glabrous below; tips abruptly short- to long-tapering; stalk .2 to 2 inches long; stipules triangular, pointed, less than .25 inch long.

Flowers

Heads, spherical, about 1.2 inch in diameter, on stalks from upper leaf axils; stalks stout, up to 4 inches long, glabrous. Many, tiny, fragrant, intermingled with narrow, white, petal-like bractlets; calyx 4-lobed, green; corolla white, tubular, less than 1/3 inch long, sparsely pubescent within, lobes 4-5, slightly spreading; stamens 4, in corolla throat; style extending beyond corolla; stigma head-like, yellowish-brown.

Fruit

Clusters of fruits, ball-shaped, more than 1 inch in diameter; fruit cone-shaped, splitting into nutlets; seeds solitary, brown with white appendage.

Ecology

Habitat

Wet open areas; along borders of streams, ponds, and lakes, in swamps and drainage ditches, woods, and prairie marshes; moist soils.

Distribution

East 3/4 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans used buttonbush for a number of medicinal purposes. The root and bark were used to treat eye disorders, the bark was chewed to relieve toothaches and was boiled and used to treat headaches, dysentary, fevers, and stomachaches. Buttonbush protects shores from wave erosion.

Additional Notes