This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’ve got another wetland wildflower. This week we’re looking at the Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis).
Buttonbush is a resident of our freshwater marshes, ponds, riverbanks, and swamps. It’s well adapted to sunny wetland habitats and is most often found growing in standing water. It’s a common sight along riverbanks and ditches or poking up above the sedges and rushes of freshwater marshes, where it can bask in full sun. It typically grows as a short shrub but can reach over 10 feet in height. It has somewhat large, simple, and oppositely arranged leaves. Its stems are a reddish-pink and the leaves usually have a prominent midrib of a similar color. In early summer, Buttonbush begins to flower. At the end of each branch, it produces a cluster of white spherical flowers. Each one of these flowers is actually a ball of dozens of smaller flowers. These flowers are a massive draw for pollinators. Eastern Tiger and Palamedes Swallowtails are particularly fond of Buttonbush, along with many other species of butterflies and bees. Once their flowers are pollinated, fruits begin to form. As the fruits mature, they turn red and bumpy before drying out and turning a dark brown. Each bump is a tiny nut that is eventually shed and may float to dry ground or a hummock of grass and sprout. Others, not so lucky, get eaten by ducks, rails, and sparrows as they float on the water. Buttonbush is a deciduous perennial, shedding its leaves each winter and leafing out again in spring.
