Bonsai Buttonwood Tree – United States National Arboretum, Washington, DC

The Buttonwood is a small tree with gray/brown fissured bark and has light green leathery leaves with wavy margins. The flowers are small and greenish to purplish in color. The fruit is red-brown, globular, button-like cones ½" in diameter. Some of the greatest bonsai in the world are those collected specimens which reflect a struggle for survival against the overwhelming odds of the ravages of nature. Conocarpus Erectus, is unique in its struggle in that it has had to survive not only frost, floods, violent winds, and storm tides but also human beings.