# Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)

> A wetland shrub for pond edges and rain gardens, with round white pincushion flowers in summer that draw bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

Also called common buttonbush, button willow, honey balls, honeybells, buttonball, riverbush. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/buttonbush/

![Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) shrub in bloom, covered in round white flower heads](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/buttonbush-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2020-06-28_13_17_53_Buttonbush_blooming_along_Old_Dairy_Road_in_the_Franklin_Farm_section_of_Oak_Hill%2C_Fairfax_County%2C_Virginia.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 5 to 12 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 10
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 37 states and the District of Columbia, north to Minnesota, south to Florida and west to California (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Wet, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Honey tree, Tolerates wet soil, Erosion control, Winter interest
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Buttonbush is the round-flowered shrub of swamps, pond shores and stream margins across eastern North America. Its fragrant white flower heads bristle with long styles, so each one looks like a pincushion. They open when few other plants are in flower, and bees use them for honey. Ducks and shorebirds eat the seeds, and wood ducks raise their broods in its cover. It is used for erosion control along shorelines, where it forms dense stands. Mass it at the edge of a pond, in the low end of a rain garden or along a ditch that floods.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Buttonbush grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Expect a shrub 5 to 12 feet tall and about as wide, on several stems from a swollen base. In the South it can grow into a small tree of 15 to 20 feet. It is often long-lived.

Round white flower heads open from June to September, each an inch to an inch and a half across. The fruiting heads ripen reddish brown in September and October. Many hang on through winter, when birds eat the nutlets. The flowers feed butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, and more than 24 kinds of birds visit the shrub.

It grows wild from Nova Scotia and Quebec west to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas, with scattered stands west to Arizona and California's Central Valley. Its home is swamps, marshes, pond shores and stream banks that stand in water for part of the year.

## How to grow Buttonbush

Buttonbush wants full sun or part shade and a soil that stays moist to wet, and it grows in standing water up to 3 feet deep. It takes clay, heat and compacted ground, but not a dry bed, and it flowers poorly in shade. Set plants 4 feet apart and keep them 6 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Pick the fruiting heads in fall once they turn reddish brown, and break them apart when dry. The seed needs no treatment. Sow it in spring on the surface of moist soil, barely covered, and keep it damp.

Water weekly through the first summer unless it stands in wet ground, and in any drought after that, since dry spells make it die back. Its leaves come out late in spring, so give a new plant time before taking it for dead. Deer browse the foliage in the North, so cage young plants where deer are many. It needs little pruning, and an overgrown plant can be cut back near the ground in early spring to grow again.

Each flower carries both male and female parts. Buttonbush sets little seed with its own pollen and far more with pollen from another plant, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents for seed. No pest or disease troubles it seriously, and it is a host plant of the promethea silkmoth. Its bark and leaves are poisonous if eaten, so keep it away from grazing animals.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Cephalanthus occidentalis, Snyder 1991](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/cepocc/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Cephalanthus chapter, Bonner](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Cephalanthus.pdf)
- [Imbert and Richards 1993, Protandry, incompatibility, and secondary pollen presentation in Cephalanthus occidentalis (Rubiaceae), American Journal of Botany 80: 395-404](https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1993.tb13818.x)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Cephalanthus occidentalis](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cephalanthus-occidentalis/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Cephalanthus occidentalis](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=g830)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Cephalanthus occidentalis](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CEOC2)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Buttonbush](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/buttonbush/)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: Buttonbush](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/buttonbush)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: Common Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_ceoc2.pdf)
- [University of Florida IFAS Extension, FP117: Cephalanthus occidentalis, Buttonbush](https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FP117)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: buttonbush](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=179)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Cephalanthus occidentalis](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/cephalanthus/occidentalis/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online, International Dendrology Society: Cephalanthus occidentalis, from Bean](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cephalanthus/cephalanthus-occidentalis/)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Cephalanthus occidentalis](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.140322/Cephalanthus_occidentalis)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for the Great Lakes and Midwest: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-the-great-lakes-and-midwest/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for bees: pollen, nectar, nesting and a bloom calendar from willow to witch hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-bees/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Buttonbush, add ?species=buttonbush with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=buttonbush&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Buttonbush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=buttonbush): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=buttonbush
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Buttonbush is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=buttonbush
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Buttonbush needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=buttonbush:2
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Buttonbush flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.