Audubon® Native Buttonbush

Delightfully different, Buttonbush is a fun Accent to have in your wildlife-friendly garden. Its white flowers bloom in summer, and they’re like nothing you’ve ever seen before! Round like a gumball, they’re covered with long styles (the female part of the flower), sticking up all around—kind of like a kid’s hair when she puts her hand on one of those static electricity balls at the science museum. Bees and butterflies adore the blooms, and hummingbirds visit them, too. In the wild, Buttonbush grows near water, and many species of ducks eat the seeds. Kingbirds, robins, and towhees have also been observed feeding on them.

Botanically, Buttonbush is unusual. It belongs to the same family as the Coffee plant—a family that doesn’t have very many members that are cold-hardy. And Buttonbush is hardy—to -30ºF once it’s established! It has an extensive native range that includes most of the eastern U.S., parts of California and Arizona, much of Mexico, and Cuba. There are even some populations in East Asia. This water-lover usually borders streams or lakes and is useful in stabilizing the shoreline. It also provides habitat for birds that like to nest near water, such as Red-Winged Blackbirds.

All sorts of butterflies—Swallowtails, Monarchs, Viceroys, Fritillaries, and Painted Ladies, to name a few—LOVE Buttonbush flowers, and they will take long, slow drinks from them. They get so engrossed in what they’re doing that you can get very close to them. A great plant for wildlife photographers!