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Silver Buttonwood Tree

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Silver Buttonwood Tree

​Conocarpus erectus var. sericeus

  • ​​Common Name: Silver Buttonwood Tree (other common names: Button Mangrove)
  • Scientific Name: Conocarpus erectus var. sericeus
  • Family Name: Combretaceae
  • Origin: native to Florida, the Caribbean, and South America
  • Height: 15’ – 20’
  • Width: 15’ – 20’
  • Growth: moderate
  • Zone: 10B - 11
  • Light Needs: Full sun to Partial shade
  • Salt Tolerance:  Aerosol salt tolerance is high
  • Soil/PH/Texture: prefers clay, sand, or loam soils or a combination of them, alkaline – acidic, with soil that is occasionally wet, but well-drained. It prefers soils with organic content but will still grow reasonably well in nutrient poor soils.
  • Soil Moisture: water on a regular basis
  • Drought Tolerance: high
  • Pests/Diseases: Look for Black Sooty Mold Disease, Aphids, Sri Lanka Weevil, or Florida Wax Scale. Watch for Cylindrocladium blight.
  • Growing Conditions: easy to grow and low maintenance
  • Characteristics: low-branching, multi-trunked, shrubby, evergreen tree has beautiful silvery leaves due to silky hairs which cover the leaf surface, the leaves are alternately arranged, simple, margins of the leaf are entire, lanceolate in shape, 2” – 4” in length, blue-green in color, and have pinnate venation. The blooms are inconspicuous, small, white - greenish flowers that appear in dense cone-like heads in terminal panicles in the spring, and are followed by 1/2-inch, cone-like, red-brown fruits.
  • Propagation: by cuttings, seeds, or air layering, (male and female flowers are on separate plants).
  • Wildlife: attracts birds, butterflies, and moths.
  • Facts: the wood can be used to make a high-grade charcoal.
  • Designer Considerations: use as a specimen plant, accent, on a street without sidewalks, screen, deck or patio, hedge, reclamation, in a parking lot island, it is urban tolerant, so can be used in a highway median, as a bonsai, shade tree, used in residential and commercial landscapes, container or planter on your patio or deck.