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It’s a vine. It’s a shrub. It’s a tree. It’s Buttonbush!
Depending on the time of year, its “flowers” are big white pincushions, pale to deep yellow globes, dark red balls or chocolate brown buttons; all in various stages of flower to seedhead.
Most literature says that Buttonbush grows in water, near water, even under up to three feet of standing water. But it also grows in planter islands in the concrete parking lot of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas, no water in sight. (They must irrigate it regularly there).
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) grows in a wide latitude of locations—from the heat of Mexico to the Arctic Circle in Canada—mostly as a small round shrub (3-4’) in the north to a small tree (6-8’) in the south. Buttonbush offers its nectar to numerous bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, and its seed as food to more than 25 species of birds and at least three mammals. If near water, Wood Ducks like to nest in its branches. The USDA gives it “exceptional wildlife benefits” as a food plant, wetland restoration and erosion control.
If you have water on your property, a pond or creek, or a poorly drained area, or can water it regularly, Buttonbush has an everchanging display to offer your landscape. Fast growing, it forms a rounded mound of branches from the base, which can be trimmed up to be more tree-like or a low mounding vine. Deep green, glossy leaves fill out the structure in late spring.
By June the fragrant flowers appear; pale yellow buds open to a cluster of white floral tubes that, together, resemble white balls on the ends of the stems. Individual flowers exert an elongated pistil that sticks out of the tube-flower like pinheads out of a pincushion. The bloom period goes through August or September, with the flowers slowly turning yellow to red to rich dark brown clusters of achenes (nutlets) by fall.
Deciduous, Buttonbush drops all leaves in winter to reveal the nutlet seed clusters that attract the hungry winter birds. The stems and branches can twist and become dense and tangled. If Buttonbush gets too dense, it can be cut back to the ground in late fall to early spring to rejuvenate.
Those distinctive globe-like flowers give Buttonbush many common names—Honeyballs, Spanish Pincushion, Globeflowers, Little Snowball. Its ability to grow in water has also labeled it as Swampwood, Riverbush, Crane Willow and Pond dogwood.
Its scientific name, Cephalanthus occidentalis, describes yet another trait. The genus was named by Linnaeus himself for two Greek words kephalos, meaning “head,” and anthos, meaning “flower.” And the species occidentalis just means “from the west.” So its name means “flowerheads from the west.” Buttonbush is in the madder family (Rubiaceae), the same as coffee, but contains the toxin cephalathina.
Propagation
The achenes (nutlets) contain two seeds each and are easily collected in the fall after turning reddish-brown. They need no additional treatment and can be sown in moist, rich soil in full sun or part shade. Buttonbush also roots well from cuttings pushed into a moist medium. Unrooted cuttings can even be pushed into damp soil along shorelines to root on their own.
For landscape use, rooted cuttings, or one-year-old seedlings, should be planted in an area where two feet of vegetation has been removed, and kept clear of completion until well established.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: marilynsallee
