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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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Introductory
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
ABBREVIATION :
CEPOCC
SYNONYMS :
NO-ENTRY
SCS PLANT CODE :
CECC2
COMMON NAMES :
buttonbush
common buttonbush
button willow
riverbush
buttonball
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name for buttonbush is Cephalanthus
occidentalis L. (Rubiaceae) [8]. Recognized varieties are as follows
[8,21,28]:
C. occidentalis var. pubescens (Raf.)
C. occidentalis var. californicus (Benth.)
C. occidentalis var. angustifolius (Dippel)
LIFE FORM :
Tree, Shrub
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
S. A. Snyder, December 1991
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Snyder, S. A. 1991. Cephalanthus occidentalis. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Buttonbush extends from southern Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and
Ontario south through southern Florida and west through the eastern
half of the Great Plains States [8,16]. Scattered populations exist in
New Mexico, Arizona, and the central valley of California [28]. The
variety californicus is found in California; the variety pubescens is
found from southeast Virginia to Georgia and Texas, southern Ontario,
Indiana, Illinois, and Oklahoma [8]. Distribution of the variety
angustifolius was not listed.
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
FRES17 Elm - ash - cottonwood
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES32 Texas savanna
FRES41 Wet grasslands
FRES42 Annual grasslands
STATES :
AL AZ AR CA CT DE FL GA IL IN
IA KS KY LA ME MA MI MN MS MO
NE NH NJ NM NC OH OK PA RI SC
TN TX VT VA WV WI NB NS ON PQ
MEXICO
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
ALPO AMIS BIBE BICY BISO BITH
BLRI BUFF CACO CAHA CATO COLO
CUGA COSW CUIS CUVA DEWA EFMO
EVER FIIS FOCA FODO GATE GWCA
GWMP GRSM GUIS HOBE INDU JELA
LAMR MACA MANA NATR NERI OBRI
OZAR PAIS PRWI RICH ROCR SAGU
SARA SHEN SHIL VAFO WHIS
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
3 Southern Pacific Border
7 Lower Basin and Range
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K030 California oakwoods
K049 Tule marshes
K080 Marl - Everglades
K091 Cypress savanna
K092 Everglades
K098 Northern floodplain forest
K099 Maple - basswood forest
K100 Oak - hickory forest
K101 Elm - ash forest
K102 Beech - maple forest
K103 Mixed mesophytic forest
K104 Appalachian oak forest
K105 Mangrove
K106 Northern hardwoods
K110 Northeastern oak - pine forest
K112 Southern mixed forest
K113 Southern floodplain forest
K114 Pocosin
SAF COVER TYPES :
14 Northern pin oak
16 Aspen
19 Grey birch - red maple
26 Sugar maple - basswood
27 Sugar maple
28 Black cherry - maple
39 Black ash - American elm - red maple
43 Bear oak
63 Cottonwood
64 Sassafras - persimmon
65 Pin oak - sweet gum
74 Cabbage palmetto
87 Sweet gum - yellow-poplar
88 Willow oak - water oak - diamondleaf oak
89 Live oak
91 Swamp chestnut oak - cherrybark oak
92 Sweetgum - willow oak
93 Sugarberry - American elm - green ash
94 Sycamore - sweetgum - American elm
95 Black willow
96 Overcup oak - water hickory
100 Pondcypress
101 Baldcypress
102 Baldcypress - tupelo
103 Water tupelo - swamp tupelo
104 Sweetbay - swamp tupelo - redbay
105 Tropical hardwoods
106 Mangrove
108 Red maple
235 Cottonwood - willow
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Buttonbush is a wetland shrub common to most swamps and floodplains of
eastern and southern North America [8,28]. It is listed as a component
of the following community types:
Area Classification Authority
CA: Sacramento Valley riparian cts Conard & others 1977
United States wetland cts Cowardin & others 1979
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Many species of waterfowl and shorebirds eat buttonbush seeds [18,28].
White-tailed deer use of buttonbush browse varies from light in
Pennsyvania [32] to heavy in Nova Scotia [23]. Bees use buttonbush to
produce honey [31].
PALATABILITY :
NO-ENTRY
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
Buttonbush is important to wood ducks for brood rearing and hiding [19].
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
The bark of buttonbush was traditionally used for making laxatives, and
for curing skin, bronchial, and venereal diseases [28]. Caution must be
used, however, because the bark contains cephalathin, a poison that can
induce vomitting, paralysis, and convulsions.
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Much of buttonbush's natural habitat in California is being destroyed by
agriculture and water development projects; buttonbush is not a good
colonizer of manmade waterways [13]. Buttonbush is moderately
susceptible to herbicides; if shrubs become too thick, they can be
reduced by cutting in the fall during low water [4,18].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Buttonbush is a deciduous, warm-season, tall shrub or small tree that
can reach up to 18 feet (6 m) in height [28]. Its base is often
swollen. Branches are usually green when young but turn brown at
maturity. Buttonbush has opposite, lanceolate-oblong leaves about 7
inches (18 cm) long and 3 inches (7.5 cm) wide [24]. Tiny, white
flowers occur in dense, spherical clusters at the ends of the branches.
Fruits are a round cluster of brown, cone-shaped nutlets. The variety
angustifolius usually has leaves in whorls of threes [28]. The variety
pubescens has hairs on the lower leaf surfaces [8]. The variety
californicus has more lanceolate leaves than the other two varieties
[21].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Phanerophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Buttonbush regenerates by seed. Seed is best collected when the nutlets
have turned reddish-brown, and averages about 134,000 per pound
(60,702/kg) [31]. Pretreatment of seeds is unnecessary [3]. Seeds have
a low germination rate [28]. Buttonbush can also be propagated by
planting cuttings in moist, sandy soil.
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Buttonbush grows along swamps, marshes, bogs, ditches, and other
riparian areas that are inundated for at least part of the year [8,24].
It grows in alluvial plains that experience intermittant flooding, but
can be damaged by spring flooding [12,20,23]. Faber-Langendoen and
Maycock [7] reported that buttonbush was very tolerant of flooding and
that its abundance increased with increasing water depth. These authors
also reported an increase in buttonbush with an increase in light level.
Elevational and geographical distribution of buttonbush may be limited
by mean July temperatures of 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 deg C) [13].
Elevations have been reported at 635 feet (193 m) in Illinois [1] and
between 60 and 160 feet (22-50 m) in Quebec [27]. Buttonbush was found
growing in sandy, loamy sandy, or alluvial soil with a sandy or silty
surface in Quebec [27].
Common associates of buttonbush include American beech (Fagus
grandifolia), red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (A. saccharum), ash
(Fraxinus spp.), black oak (Quercus velutina), pin oak (Q. palustris),
tupelo and gum (Nyssa spp.), baldcypress (Taxodium distichum), southern
bayberry (Myrica cerifera), redbay (Persea palustris), holly (Ilex
spp.), dogberry (Ribes cynosbati), grape (Vitis spp.), viburnum
(Viburnum spp.), poison-ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), indiangrass
(Sorgastrom nutans), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), switchgrass
(Panicum virgatum), and sedge (Carex spp.) [5,7,11].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Buttonbush is a pioneer species in frequently flooded baldcypress/water
tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) swamps, establishing on rotting logs and stumps
[35]. In the Sacremento Valley, buttonbush/dogwood (Corunus spp.)
communities are succeeded by white alder (Alnus rhombifolia)/willow
(Salix spp.)/Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia) and eventually cottonwood
(Populus spp.) forests [36]. Buttonbush also colonizes lowland marsh
communities dominated by hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus).
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Buttonbush flowers between June and September and produces fruit between
September and October [8,24,28].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Because the base of buttonbush shrubs are partially submerged during
most of the year, fire may not be a threat.
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
off-site colonizer; seed carried by animals or water; postfire yr 1&2
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
NO-ENTRY
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Buttonbush resprouts following fire [9,11].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
Buttonbush can become the dominant shrub in grassy, wetland areas of the
South excluded from fire [14]. However, when these areas are burned
buttonbush has been observed sprouting within a few months following
fire [9,11,29]. Frequent fires in harwood swamps of the South often
promote willow sprouting and, occasionally, buttonbush sprouting [30].
Following 2 years of drought, a severe fire in an area of the Okefenokee
Swamp that supported buttonbush killed most of the trees and consumed a
1-inch (2.45 cm) layer of peat [34]. Buttonbush resprouted 7 years
later.
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
In Southern marshlands, where grasses are thick and impenetrable, fire
can reduce grass densities and release nutrients, which enhances
establishment of shrubs such as buttonbush [29].
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Cephalanthus occidentalis | Buttonbush
REFERENCES :
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[434]
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Index
Related categories for Species: Cephalanthus occidentalis
| Buttonbush
|
 |
