Dictionary

buttonwood en · NOUN

Etymology

From button + wood.

Meanings

1. The common name given to at least three species of shrub or tree. ▸ The mangrove tree (Conocarpus erectus, family Combretaceae) a tropical and subtropical species.
   • On the opposite bank was a fresh ’gator wallow. The mud had been packed smooth where they turned and rolled their hard bodies. Penny dropped to his haunches behind a buttonwood bush. 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 24, in The Yearling, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 303:
2. The common name given to at least three species of shrub or tree. ▸ The American sycamore or American plane tree (Platanus occidentalis, family Platanaceae).
   • 1835, Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence in America, Paris: A. and W. Galignani, entry dated Sunday, 13 January, 1833, p. 234, When near, the trees look singularly deplorable and untidy, although at the distance, the red-brown of the faded oaks mingling with the bright, vivid, green cedars, and here and there a silver-barked buttonwood tree raising its white delicate branches from among them, produce a very agreeable and harmonious blending to the eye.
   • 1824, Washington Irving (as Geoffrey Crayon), “Wolfert Webber, or Golden Dreams” in Tales of a Traveller, Volume 2, Part 4, Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea, p. 55, Thus quietly and comfortably did this excellent family vegetate under the shade of a mighty buttonwood tree, which by little and little grew so great as entirely to overshadow their palace.
3. The common name given to at least three species of shrub or tree. ▸ California sycamore or western sycamore (Platanus racemosa).

Forms

Deriveds

swamp buttonwood · Florida buttonwood · Harvey's buttonwood

Relateds

Platanus occidentalis · Platanus racemosa · Conocarpus erectus