A shrub, 3 to 10 feet high, rarely treelike and taller; branches smooth or somewhat pubescent. Leaves opposite or in whorls, petioled, entire, oval or ovate, pointed at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base, 3 to 6 inches long, 1 to 21/2 inches wide. Flowers small, white, sessile, borne in dense terminal or axillary and stalked globose heads, about 1 inch in diameter. Corolla one-third to one-half of an inch long, tubular-funnel-form, with four erect or spreading lobes. Stamens four, attached to the throat of the corolla with very short filaments. Style very slender and about twice the length of the corolla.

In swamps, low ground and shallow water along lakes, streams and ponds, New Brunswick to western Ontario and Wisconsin, south to Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. Flowering from June to September.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 210

Buttonbush; bush globeflower   Cepltalaiitlius occidentalis

Buttonbush; bush globeflower - Cepltalaiitlius occidentalis