buttonwood

English

Platanus occidentalis or American sycamore, a buttonwood

Etymology

button +‎ wood

Noun

buttonwood (plural buttonwoods)

1. The common name given to at least three species of shrub or tree.
   1. The mangrove tree (, family Combretaceae) a tropical and subtropical species.
      • 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 24, p. 303,^[1]

        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.

   2. The American sycamore or American plane tree (Platanus occidentalis, family Platanaceae).
      • 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,^[2]

        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.

      • 1835, Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence in America, Paris: A. and W. Galignani, entry dated Sunday, 13  January, 1833, p. 234,^[3]

        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.

   3. California sycamore or western sycamore ().

Translations

mangrove — see mangrove

American sycamore — see American sycamore

California sycamore — see California sycamore

See also

• Conocarpus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• American sycamore on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• California sycamore on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Conocarpus erectus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Platanus occidentalis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Platanus racemosa on Wikispecies.Wikispecies