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Summary
Duration	Perennial
Growth Habit	Tree, Shrub
U.S. Nativity	Native to U.S.
Federal T/E Status
National Wetland Indicator	OBL
Morphology/Physiology
Active Growth Period	Spring
After Harvest Regrowth Rate
Bloat	None
C:N Ratio	Medium
Coppice Potential	No
Fall Conspicuous	No
Fire Resistant	No
Flower Color	White
Flower Conspicuous	Yes
Foliage Color	Green
Foliage Porosity Summer	Moderate
Foliage Porosity Winter	Porous
Foliage Texture	Coarse
Fruit/Seed Color	White
Fruit/Seed Conspicuous	Yes
Growth Form	Multiple Stem
Growth Rate	Moderate
Height at 20 Years, Maximum (feet)	20
Height, Mature (feet)	20
Known Allelopath	No
Leaf Retention	No
Lifespan	Short
Low Growing Grass	No
Nitrogen Fixation
Resprout Ability	Yes
Shape and Orientation	Erect
Toxicity	None
Growth Requirements
Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Fine Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Medium Textured Soils	Yes
Anaerobic Tolerance	High
CaCO3 Tolerance	Medium
Cold Stratification Required	No
Drought Tolerance	Medium
Fertility Requirement	Low
Fire Tolerance	Medium
Frost Free Days, Minimum	150
Hedge Tolerance	None
Moisture Use	High
pH, Minimum	5.3
pH, Maximum	8.5
Planting Density per Acre, Minimum	1746
Planting Density per Acre, Maximum	2700
Precipitation, Minimum	28
Precipitation, Maximum	65
Root Depth, Minimum (inches)	14
Salinity Tolerance	Low
Shade Tolerance	Tolerant
Temperature, Minimum (°F)	-33
Reproduction
Bloom Period	Spring
Commercial Availability	Routinely Available
Fruit/Seed Abundance	Medium
Fruit/Seed Period Begin	Spring
Fruit/Seed Period End	Winter
Fruit/Seed Persistence	Yes
Propagated by Bare Root	Yes
Propagated by Bulb	No
Propagated by Container	Yes
Propagated by Corm	No
Propagated by Cuttings	Yes
Propagated by Seed	Yes
Propagated by Sod	No
Propagated by Sprigs	No
Propagated by Tubers	No
Seed per Pound
Seed Spread Rate	Moderate
Seedling Vigor	High
Small Grain	No
Vegetative Spread Rate	None
Suitability/Use
Berry/Nut/Seed Product	No
Christmas Tree Product	No
Fodder Product	No
Fuelwood Product	None
Lumber Product	No
Naval Store Product	No
Nursery Stock Product	No
Palatable Browse Animal
Palatable Graze Animal	Low
Palatable Human	No
Post Product	No
Protein Potential
Pulpwood Product	No
Veneer Product	No

 

Kingdom  Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom  Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision  Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division  Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class  Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass  Asteridae

Order  Rubiales

Family  Rubiaceae -- Madder family

Genus  Cephalanthus L. -- buttonbush P

Species  Cephalanthus occidentalis L. -- common buttonbush P

 

Alternate Names

Button ball, button willow, buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis var. californicus, Cephalanthus occidentalis var. pubescens, honey-bells, riverbush.

 

WARNING: Common buttonbush contains the poison CEPHALATHIN.  Cephalathin will induce vomiting, paralysis, and convulsions if ingested.

 

Uses

Erosion control: Common buttonbush is used for erosion control along shorelines.  It forms dense stands and its swollen plant base stabilizes the plant.

 

Ethnobotanic: Native Americans used common buttonbush medicinally.  Decoctions of the bark were used as washes for sore eyes, antidiarrheal agents, anti-inflammation and rheumatism medications, skin astringents, headache and fever relievers, and venereal disease remedies.  The bark was also chewed to relieve toothaches.  Roots were used for muscle inflammation and as blood medicines.

 

Ornamental: Showy flowers and fruit make common buttonbush a popular choice for use in native plant gardens, shrub borders, and along pond shores and water gardens.  The persistent fruits give the plant some winter interest.

 

Wildlife: Waterfowl and shorebirds consume the seeds of common buttonbush.  White-tailed deer browse foliage in the northeastern United States.  Wood ducks use the plant’s structure for protection of brooding nests.  Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds are attracted to common buttonbush for its nectar.  Bees use it to produce honey.

 

Description

General: Madder Family (Rubiaceae). Common buttonbush is a warm-season shrub or small tree that reaches 6 m in height at maturity.  Stem bases are swollen.  Young twigs are green, 4-sided with elongated lenticels, and turn brown and scaly upon maturation.  Leaves are opposite or whorled, lance-shaped, 18 cm long and 7.5 cm wide, glossy dark green, and emerge in May.  Flowers are tubular, 4- to 5-lobed, white to reddish, 4 cm across, and form in dense clusters at the ends of the branches.  Long styles give flowers a pincushion appearance.  The fruit are ball-like and contain 2-seeded nutlets.  Common buttonbush blooms in June through September and sets fruit in September and October.

 

Key characteristics of common buttonbush are its pincushion flower heads, elongated lenticels, and swollen stem bases.  It is also the only wetland shrub that has whorled leaves and spherical-shaped flowers.

 

Distribution: Common buttonbush is native to North America.  It occurs from Nova Scotia to Ontario, south through Florida, and west to the eastern Great Plains with scattered populations in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and northern Mexico.  For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site (https://plants.usda.gov).

 

Habitat: Common buttonbush is a wetland shrub common in swamps, floodplains, marshes, bogs, ditches that are underwater for part of the year, and alluvial plains with intermittent flooding.  It is present in riparian and wetland communities and is associated with plants like American beech, red maple, sugar maple, black oak, pin oak, Nyssa species, bald cypress, southern bayberry, red bay, holly, dogberry, grape, viburnum, poison ivy, Indian grass, big bluestem, switchgrass, and sedges.

 

Adaptation

The USDA hardiness zones for common buttonbush are 5 through 9.  It is a pioneer species in flooded areas and colonizes lowland marsh communities dominated by hardstem bulrush.  It grows well in sandy, loamy soils or alluvial soils with sand or silt surfaces.  It favors acidic or neutral soils and is intolerant of alkalinity.  It prefers medium to wet moisture levels and is intolerant of dry soils.  Abundance increases with increased water levels and with increased light levels.  Its distribution is limited to regions that have a mean July temperature of 20^oC.

 

Management

Common buttonbush does not colonize along manmade waterways.  It is moderately susceptible to herbicides and can be damaged by springtime flooding.  Pruning is not necessary for control of spread but can be done in the spring to shape the plant.  Dense shrubs can be cut back in the fall, when water levels are low, to maintain manageability.

 

It has been found in the South that common buttonbush remains dominant in the absence of fire.  It will resprout in a few months following low-intensity burns in wet woodlands.  Frequent fires will promote occasional sprouting, but common buttonbush is slow to resprout (7 years) following high-intensity burns.  In the southern marshlands, fire decreases grass densities, releasing nutrients for common buttonbush, and increasing growth.

 

Seeds and Plant Production

Common buttonbush seeds are ready for collection in the fall when they have turned reddish-brown.  No pretreatment is necessary.  Sow seeds into moist, humus soils in full sun or part shade. 

 

Cuttings will produce roots in moist sandy soil.  Unrooted cuttings can be pushed into moist soil along shorelines and will establish on their own.

 

Cultivars, Improved, and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

In 1996, the Big Flats Plant Materials Center released the ‘Keystone’ common buttonbush cultivar for use in wetland and riparian area restoration for the entire common buttonbush range. ‘Keystone’ was selected for its increased plant vigor, stem and foliar abundance, and increased basal area. 

 

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information.  Look in the phone book under ”United States Government.”  The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading “Department of Agriculture.”

 

References

Allain, L. 2004. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (https://plants.usda.gov, 24 June 2004). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge.

 

Agricultural Research Center. 2004. GRIN taxonomy (https://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/index, 21 June 2004). USDA, Beltsville.

 

Esquivel, R.G. 2001. Propagation protocol for production of container Cephalanthus occidentalis L. plants. (https://www.native plantnetwork.org, 21 June 2004). College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow.

 

Floridata. 2004. Plant encyclopedia (https://floridata.com, 21 June 2004). Floridata Marketplace, Tallahassee.

 

Kemper Center for Home Gardening. 2004. (https://ridgwaydb-mobot.org/ kemperweb/plantfinder/Alpha.asp, 21 June 2004). Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

 

Morris, R. 2003. Cephalanthus occidentalis (https://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html? Cephalanthus+occidentalis, 21 June 2004). Plants for a Future Database, Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, United Kingdom.

 

Snyder, S.A. 1991. Cephalanthus occidentalis.

 (https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/, 21 June 2004). Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Missoula.

 

Wisconsin State Herbarium. 2004. Cephalanthus occidentalis (www.botany.wisc.edu/wisflora/scripts/ detail.asp?SpCode=CEPOCC, 21 June 2004). University of Wisconsin, Madison.

 

Wunderlin, R.P., and B.F. Hansen. 2003. Atlas of Florida vascular plants (https://www.plantatlas. usf.edu, 21 June 2004). Institute of Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa.

 

Prepared By:

Sarah Wennerberg

Formerly USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center,

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Species Coordinator:

Mark Skinner

USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Edited: 25June2004 sbw; 21Oct2004 rln; 05jun06 jsp

 

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS Web site<https://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site <https://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>

 

 

 

Attribution:  U.S. Department of Agriculture