Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BUTTONBUSH

File Size: 78 KB

Cephalanthus occidentalis L.

Woodson County, Kansas

Height: 2-12 feet

Family: Rubiaceae - Madder Family

Flowering Period: July, August

Trunks:

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.

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.

Origin:

Native

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.

Comments:

Cephalanthus is derived from Greek cephale and anthos, "head flower". The flowers are a good source of honey. The fruits often remain until late winter, providing seeds for birds to consume. Buttonbush is in the same family as the coffee tree Coffea arabica.

Buttonbush inflorescence