Sciencetific Name: Conocarpus erectus var. sericeus
Family Name: COMBRETACEAE
The silver buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus var. sericeus) is so popular in cultivation for its soothing silvery foliage, that the green-leaved variety of this species (Conocarpus erectus var. erectus) has come to be called 'green buttonwood' to differentiate it from the silver variety! A dense coat of fine white hairs covers both sides of green buttonwood leaves, reflecting the sunlight in a green-gray sheen.
Native to the coasts of tropical America from Florida through the Caribbean and West Indies, this species can form dense, multi-trunked, shrubby thickets or grow as a tree up to 20m in height.
Instead, the silver buttonwood has rounded flower heads covered in tiny, whitish florets that are said to smell intensely of artificial grape! Cute as a button, the maroon-tinged, conical, button-like fruit clusters give the genus both their botanical name: Conocarpus means ‘cone-like fruit,’ and their common name of 'buttonwood’.