Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | Buttonwood is a small tree that seldom reaches heights of 40'. It is usually small and shrub-like. |
| Leaves: | The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, persistent, and are 1" to 4" long by ½" to 1 ½" wide. The oblong shaped leaves usually have dark, shiny green upper surfaces while the underneath surface is paler and smooth with silky hairs. The leaf base is wedged with a pair of marginal glands. The leaf tip is tapering and the margin is smooth. |
| Fruit: | The fruit is a tiny reddish, leathery drupe. The scale-like drupes are borne in heads that resemble a cone that is 1" in diameter. |
| Bark: | The dark-brown to black bark has irregular fissures that form flat, interlacing, scaly ridges. |
| Habitat: | Buttonwood grows in the silty, muddy shorelines of tidal bays and lagoons, commonly landward of the fringe of mangrove community and above high tides. They are also found on the edges of hammocks, salt flats, marshes, and sandy rocklands. |