Habitat:
Buttonbush grows in wetlands around the borders of swamps, ponds, and rivers.

Size/Form:
Buttonbush can be thickets of shrubs or small trees that reaches heights 25' to 35' tall

Bark:
The gray-brown bark is smooth.

Leaves:
The leaves are simple, oppositely arranged, and deciduous. The leaves are 4" to 7" long and 2" to 3 ½" wide. They are elliptically shaped, papery thin, slightly hairy underneath, and have smooth margins. The leaf base is rounded or wedged and the leaf tip is short- to long- tapering.

Flowers:
The fragrant white flowers are borne in ball-shaped clusters, 1" to 1½" in diameter.

Fruit:
The fruit are tiny dark red-brown achenes in spherical clusters that measure ¾" in diameter.